A Second Chance
by mechislander
Summary: Before his death, Lelouch Lamperouge never got to live a normal life. Now, though, he's getting a second chance...
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One: Dr Einstein's patient

Doctor V.F. Einstein, MD, sighed as he checked his patient's brainwave patterns and pulse rate. Everything was normal, as far as he could tell; the main problem was that his patient was still unconscious after a whole year.

Einstein sighed again, making a mark on the thick checklist he'd compiled specifically for this patient. It _seemed _an easy enough case: to replace a shattered vertebrae and fix a hole in the patient's heart. It didn't bother him in the least that the green-haired woman who'd brought him in refused to tell the doctor where and how the patient sustained all those injuries.

Then, after fixing the patient up again, there remained the problem of actually bringing him back to life. Defibrillators would definitely not work; the poor guy was well and truly dead even before Dr Einstein had started his surgery. He'd discussed the problem 'theoretically' with his colleagues, and one of them, a Dr Shelly, had suggested using lightning.

"_Of course, there's the problem of how to channel the lightning and controlling it such that the body won't burn," she had said. "But since this talk is all theoretical, there's always this possibility."_

Einstein had worked on the idea at once, modifying his ancestral home (his ancestors would have turned in their graves if they knew what he had been doing), widening the skylight and lengthening the lightning conductor. For weeks he'd tried fruitlessly to control the wild surges of electricity, but failed miserably.

A stroke of luck came in the form of an email sent by one of his distant nieces, Nina, and Einstein set to work right away. Being a careful man, he'd run thousands of computer simulations and done at least thirty dry runs before taking the body out of his basement's deep freezer.

Einstein would never forget the night of his success. Lightning struck the modified conductor and rushed down through the circuit. It was slowed by a million resistors (which all blew) and sent life surging through the body.

"_He's alive!!!" Einstein had all but cackled. "He's ALIVE!!!!!!"_

Alive, but certainly not awake. As it had been till this very day.

Shaking himself away from his recollections, Dr Einstein sighed a third time, and turned his back on his patient, making for the door. His niece would be arriving in the morning, and he intended to spend the whole day with her discussing the development of clean, energy-generating devices.

A sudden _beep_ from the brainwave monitor made him stop. He turned around, almost certain that he had imagined the sound, but no: the brainwave monitor showed a spike in brain activity, followed by a rapid series of ups and downs, like a mountain peak.

"Beta wave activity... he's dreaming!" Einstein whispered to himself. Stepping closer to his machine, he took a closer look at both it and his patient. The latter's eyeballs were rolling, wild beneath his eyelids. His breathing was becoming shallower and faster, and sweat was breaking out all over his body. Einstein took it all in, he too breaking out in excited perspiration.

Then with a strangled cry, the patient awoke, sitting upright, taking in deep, gasping breaths. He looked around, disorientated, fear showing very clearly in those dark amethyst eyes. His raven black hair hung halfway across his eyes, longer than it had been when Einstein had first put him on the operating table.

"Can you hear me?" Einstein said, in a clear, controlled voice. "Do you know who you are? Can you hear me?"

The patient looked over at him slowly, trembling. Just as slowly, he nodded.

"Good," Einstein tried very hard to keep himself from smiling. "Do you know who you are? Do you remember your name?"

"Y-yes," Einstein's patient whispered. "I-My name is..."

**...**

Nina Einstein, former chief physicist at Britannia's Dallas Laboratories, sat easily in the carriage as she rode through her uncle's estate at the foot of White Mountain. This was the first time in months when she could actually relax and not worry about anyone attacking her.

Nina still felt a chill whenever she thought of how her FLEIA bomb had been used on Tokyo, only fourteen months ago. The pride that she'd felt during the test firing at Dallas Labs had evaporated with the actual usage of the bomb. Having seen the damage that _one _bomb could do, she'd almost had a breakdown when Lelouch had told her that Prince Schneizel had fired _multiple_ FLEIA bombs during the Damocles coup d'etat.

_Lelouch_, she thought. _I wonder where you are now... Heaven, or Hell? You liberated much of the world from the fear of Britannia, but you _ruined_ Britannia in the process. Lelouch, 'The Enigma'_

Her thoughts came to a pleasant halt when she caught sight of her uncle's mansion, high on a cliff, built partly into White Mountain. It was the same as she'd dimly remembered, from photographs in the family album and infrequent visits during her childhood, before going over to Ashford Academy. Coming here, so far in the mountains, was the right thing to do, even if it was against the wishes of her parents.

For some reason, Nina's father and uncle Victor never did manage to see eye-to-eye.

The carriage stopped before her uncle's front gate fifteen minutes later. Nina got out without waiting for the driver to open her door, stretched, and breathed in the fresh, bracing mountain air. She shivered slightly in the cold; understandable, for she had not changed clothes during the flight from Galveston, and still wore her by-now infamous 'Dress of Red Death', so named because she had been wearing it when the FLEIA bomb was test-fired.

Interestingly, uncle Victor's main doors opened just as Nina was about to knock, resulting in her holding up a fist in front of her uncle Victor, who was obviously on his way out.

"Nina!" he exclaimed, too joyfully. He stepped to the side, as though to conceal something from her. "How've you been?"

"Uncle Victor," she replied, smiling despite her suspicion that he was hiding something. "So good to see you again. What's that you're hiding behind your back?"

"Hm? Me? Hiding?" Uncle Victor faltered. "Nothing! Nothing of your interest, anyway..." Einstein was never a good liar; already cold sweat was breaking out across his forehead. Nina smiled; it was amusing to see him so agitated.

"Come on, Uncle Victor, you can show me," Nina said. "Are you going to deny your favourite niece a simple request, after she hasn't seen you for so long?"

Einstein sighed. "All right," he said, and moved aside, revealing to his niece the slender, slightly pale form of his patient.

Nina's eyes widened like one of her FLEIA bomb craters. "N-no..." she said. "It _can't _be. You-you're dead! I saw you die! The whole _world _saw you die!" Her voice rose to a shriek.

"You can't be alive! _Lelouch Lamperouge!!_"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two: Shockwaves of Life

Einstein had to react fast to prevent Nina from rushing at his precious patient and doing him bodily harm, so he jabbed her hard, once, in the solar plexus. She went down instantly.

"Oy, Kevin," Einstein called out to the carriage driver, as he scooped Nina up. "You've got to help bring down all her baggage, okay? I'm sorry, I can't help you today." The driver nodded and mutely went about his task. Einstein turned back into the house, pushing the door behind with his foot. He led the way to the sitting room, Lelouch following meekly behind.

_Quite unlike him, _Einstein thought, _If that girl's tales are true, he shouldn't be so silent._

Einstein dumped Nina unceremoniously on one of the couches, sat down himself, and indicated that Lelouch should do the same. "We can't go anywhere now, I'm afraid," Einstein said. "Sorry about that."

"You're doing quite a bit of apologizing, aren't you?" Lelouch replied, his voice still hoarse from a year of disuse. "Please explain, Doctor. What is going on? Nina was right. I can't-" He swallowed, to moisten his throat. "I can't be alive."

"I know," Einstein said. "Let me ring for some water first, and get someone else who might be able to explain also." He touched a control on his wristwatch and spoke softly into it. Moments later, a maid knocked on the door, bearing a pitcher of ice water and four glasses. With her was the green-haired woman who had brought Lelouch in.

"CC!" Lelouch exclaimed. "I should have known. What- no, why did you bring me back to life? And _how_ did you do it?"

"Simple," CC replied in her usual placid voice. "I asked him to help." She pointed at Einstein. "One of the most brilliant medical minds, if a bit controversial. He was the perfect choice to resurrect you."

"Yes, but- In the name of God, _why_, CC? Why?" Lelouch pressed on with his original question, and when he looked at the witch, he saw-was it possible?-tears in her eyes.

"CC?" Lelouch got up from his seat and walked towards her. "This isn't like you. What's going on?"

CC smiled. "And this isn't like _you_, either, Lelouch. Caring about me? When did you ever do that?"

"I..." Lelouch was at a loss for words. "When you lost your memories, I cared about you. I took care of you."

"Not always," CC retorted shortly. "Anyway, to return to your original question... I brought you back to life because I specifically wanted _you _to fulfil our pact.

"And because I pitied you."

"You _what_?!" Both Lelouch and Einstein exclaimed at the same time. "Pity? For me, of all people? Are you-"

"You've never had a normal life," CC said. "Being a genius, always keeping a careful distance from people, and most of all, becoming an international terrorist... These are some things that a normal seventeen-year old should never need to do.

"I want you to experience a life of normalcy, Lelouch. The world has settled down now; there are no longer any injustices for you to change."

"Right," Lelouch said, sitting back down in his seat. He realised his hands were trembling, and he poured himself a glass of water, to force himself to calm down. He took a deep breath.

"Right," he said again. "Now just _how_ did you do it?"

"With Doctor-"

"God dammit, I'm not talking _medically_!" Lelouch yelled, leaping out of his seat. "How did you manage to get me back to normal? How come I'm here, yelling at you, and not unconscious?"

_Strange, _he thought. _I'm yelling. Something is _very _wrong here._

CC smiled again, that strange, enigmatic smile that seemed to be mocking him. If that smile annoyed him, her next words shocked the hell out of him.

"I gave you half my Code."

This time Lelouch sat stunned in his chair, and simply gaped. CC let out a laugh. "Oh, if you could see the look on your face! And while you're thinking that this is the part when I reveal it's all a joke," her face became dead serious again, "It's not. I am deadly serious, Lelouch vi Britannia."

She had used his real name. Lelouch had never, _ever_ heard her use his real name. He sank back into his padded chair, his head in a whirl. But wait-he had a very important question, one that he couldn't believe had slipped his mind.

"Will my-" he began, but CC shook her head.

"You no longer have your Geass, Lelouch," she said. "Not until I decide to give you one again." Lelouch sank back in his chair, disappointed, but also-

_Relieved?_

This time it was Lelouch who smiled. Without his Geass, it would definitely be a lot harder to pry information out of people, but to be honest, did he need that? What information would he need that he would have to force people to give it up to him?

"So tell me," he said, pouring himself another glass of water, "What's been going on since I died?"

**...**

Nina awoke to hear a muted _All Hail Britannia!_, a tune which, as a Britannian citizen, was not unfamiliar to her. She blinked sleepily and looked around her, rubbing her tummy and wondering vaguely why it hurt so.

_That's right... I came to Uncle Victor's this morning... _She wrinkled her brow in thought. _And-_ Her eyes shot wide open. _Lelouch! He's _alive!

Nina made to get up, but her uncle's voice stopped her. "Go easy on the boy," he said. Nina's head shot around and found him standing by the side of the couch she was lying on. "Here, have a drink." He offered her a glass of ice water, and as she sipped it, he went on, "Look, I don't know what happened between you and him in the past, but-"

"You don't know? How could you not know? Where have you been the past few years?" Nina almost shouted. "Didn't you know he used to be _Emperor_?"

"Hmph. Don't know, don't care," Einstein said carelessly. "Always hated politics. Nowadays I don't give a damn what happens outside my estate. And as to where I've been these past few years-in the basement, testing my cryogenics freezer."

"Please don't tell me you used it on yourself." Nina was only half-joking; from what she had managed to find out about uncle Victor from BIGLOBE and Goggle, he was just person to do that kind of thing and experiment on himself.

"I did not," Einstein said. "Most of the time, anyway." Nina laughed, but it didn't laugh. She motioned her head towards the music.

"What's _he_ up to?" she asked. "Looking for something to do?"

Einstein shook his head. "No, girl," he said. "He's changed. The world's changed. Even if he used to be an international terrorist in the past, he isn't anymore. Now he's just a normal boy trying to get back into the world."

As he finished speaking, Lelouch appeared in the doorway. He stood there for an awkward moment, looking at Nina. She glared back. He opened his mouth to say something, but Nina's unrelenting gaze made him falter. He closed his mouth, shook his head, and turned away.

Nina looked away as well, looking down at the carpeted floor.

"Well?" said her uncle. Nina looked up, surprised. "Don't just sit there, girl! Go after him!"

Nina looked up at the doorway, looked back at her uncle, then back at the doorway again.

"Remember, he's not the boy you used to know..."

Nina got up, and followed in Lelouch's direction.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three: Lelouch's Plan

Nina strode quickly from the sitting room, hoping to catch up to Lelouch and ask him what it was he wanted to say. She found him after a short search, in her uncle's surprisingly well-kept garden.

"Lelouch," she said, walking up to him. He didn't reply, or even acknowledge her presence, just went on staring at the rose bushes.

"Lelouch," she said again. "What was it that you wanted to say to me?"

"These roses..." Lelouch said, "They used to be Nunnally's favourite. Now..." He closed his eyes, as though in regret. "I used to grow these for her, Nina. I took care of them, picked them, arranged them in beautiful bouquets for her. Now, though... Now I can't . She's the Empress, and me, well, I'm legally dead, aren't I? I can't keep her flowers anymore."

Nina didn't say anything; what was there that she _could_ say? She waited for Lelouch to continue, certain that this wasn't what he wanted to talk to her about. She looked around at the garden, reminded of the older, smaller one at Ashford Academy. She'd heard that Milly had created a rooftop garden, but she'd hadn't a chance to look at it.

"We grew these roses back at Ashford, as well," Lelouch said. Nina jumped; it was as if he could read her thoughts. "In Milly's rooftop garden. I wish you could have seen it, Nina. There was so much more space there to grow flowers and bonsai plants and all sorts of things... of course, most of them withered during the war."

Lelouch turned to face her, and that expression in his eyes-was it regret? Sadness?-was one she had never seen before.

"I'm sorry, Nina. I'm sorry for everything I've done. I know I can't-" his voice choked with emotion, but he continued on, "I can't undo what I've done, but I hope... I hope that someday, one day... I hope you'll forgive me." He turned and walked away quickly, raising an arm to his face.

"I told you before, didn't I?" Nina called out, after him, and he froze in his tracks.. "I'll never forgive Zero for killing my Princess." She took hold of his arm. "Uncle Victor was right, Lelouch. You _have _changed. And... and you're not Zero anymore."

Lelouch's controlled emotions broke free of him and came out through his eyes. "Thank you," he said, choking on his tears. "Thank you." He broke down completely, and cried freely on her shoulder.

Nina didn't notice the figure watching them from an upper room window as she patted Lelouch on his back, trying to soothe him.

**...**

That night, Lelouch, Nina, CC, and Einstein sat in the dining hall, waiting for dinner to be served. Einstein was the first to get the ball rolling. "So, Lelouch," he began, "You've been alive for about eighteen hours. How's it feel?"

"How do I feel?" Lelouch repeated. "Out of sync. All of a sudden, my dear sister is the Empress, the UFN is a World Power, and Ashford Academy-"

"Oh! I forgot to tell you all-" Nina began, but was interrupted by the arrival of the meal, and white wine.

"Yes, Nina?" Einstein said, once the servants had left.

"I've been accepted as a physics lecturer at Ashford," Nina said proudly, but blushing a little, all the same. "I start work next month, after this break."

Einstein's eyebrows rose in surprise. "Well, that's good news!" He filled his wine glass. "To Nina, new physics teacher at Ashford International!"

Lelouch and CC followed suit. "To Nina." CC drank some of her wine, but Lelouch didn't. In fact, he didn't even put down his glass.

Einstein, of course, noticed this. "Something the matter, Lelouch?"

Lelouch nodded. "I wish to enrol at Ashford again. Wait, let me explain," he added quickly, stopping their demands for an explanation.

"Think about it: If I stay here, I won't be able to fulfil CC's goal of resurrecting me-to give me a normal life. If I enrolled in a school here, someone would be sure to notice that I'm out of sync with the rest of the world."

"We could always say you were in a coma during the war," Einstein said.

"I _am_ going to say that, but it'll be much easier to do so in Japan. I can say that I had to transfer out from a Britannian school and come to Ashford to study," Lelouch said. "And besides, I grew up in Japan. It'll be like... coming home...

"And if I'm in Japan, no-one'll find out I'm still alive..." he added, softly. "It's for the best, really."

CC looked concerned. "Lelouch..." she said. "You do realise you're sending yourself to Japan for the same reason your father did?"

"I am not!" he lashed out at her. "My father _abandoned_ me! He didn't care if I lived or died. If he had cared, would he have invaded Japan? No! Unlike my father, I have given this much more thought, and I decide that I AM going to Japan, and I WILL enrol in Ashford Academy."

"Actually, it's Ashford International now..." Nina added, under her breath. Out loud, she said. "I have an idea, Lelouch. You'll live with me on campus, and-"

"Hoping to start a rumour of a teacher-student affair?" Lelouch thought about it. "Good idea, but no. People'll start to check up on who I am."

"What if _I _move in with you?" CC suggested. "It wouldn't-"

Nina smiled. "CC, you've forgotten something very important about me. About my... orientation."

"How about," Einstein's exasperated voice rose above all the other three, "_All _of you move in together? I can easily pretend that you're Nina's cousins or something."

"What- with you as our father?" Lelouch laughed. "Dr Einstein, for a medical doctor-"

"Why not? It's perfect!" Einstein said. "The whole world knows how eccentric I am. A secret marriage, children who have been kept secret from the world, a wife who died of grief when she thought you'd died in the Pendragon FLEIA bombing- sorry, Nina- and now, I've decided to reveal the two of you to the world, since the world's changed. It'll certainly be the talk f the town." He looked around, his eyes twinkling. "Whaddaya say?"

Nina seemed to be considering to, when Einstein shot at her, "Anybody else I know working at Ashford?"

Nina jumped at his sudden question. "Um, well, offhand, I only remember the biology department's head... Dr Joyce Kell-"

"I know her," Einstein interrupted. "We were research partners once." He turned back to CC and Lelouch. "Well, children? What do you say?"

Lelouch had concluded to himself that Einstein would brook no argument from anyone once his mind was made up, no matter how logical the argument may be, so he simply nodded.

"Right then!" Einstein said brightly. "So it's decided. And now, back to dinner!"


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four: The Start of a Normal Life

The month whizzed by like nothing at all, and all of a sudden, it seemed, Lelouch found himself standing at the St Francis International Airport, Nina and CC beside him, waiting to board the plane to Japan.

Einstein had, uncharacteristically, come to see them off, accompanied by one of his household servants. Privately, Lelouch thought of her as a bodyguard, since she had refused to take off her sunglasses or her cap and didn't speak for the whole trip from Einstein's mansion to the airport.

"Well, children," Einstein said, pretending to be sad at their leaving. "Listen to Nina, okay? She might only be the same age as you, but when I say that she is in charge, then she _is_ in charge." He reached out to hug them, as how a real father might.

Lelouch didn't hear what Einstein said to CC, but he heard very clearly what he said to him: "I gave you your life back, Lelouch. In a way, I really _am_ your father." Einstein released him, and said, "Well, go on, Luke."

Lelouch grimaced inwardly, but that was the name that Einstein, Nina, and CC had decided for him. His new alias was Luke, and CC was his sister, Charlotte, and their surname was Overton, the same as Einstein's imaginary wife. Lelouch had dyed his hair a dark brown, and CC had, with great reluctance, cut hers short. However, she refused outright to dye it, and had instead insisted that Lelouch put in amber coloured contact lenses, to match his eyes with hers.

As they walked through the departure gate, CC gave an award-worthy impression of a sad daughter leaving her father for a foreign school. Lelouch refused outright to turn, and pretended to be holding back tears.

None of them turned around in time to see Einstein's 'bodyguard' remove her sunglasses and cap, exposing her copper-coloured hair, with a wistful look in her green eyes.

**...**

Similarly, the eleven-hour trip to Japan also seemed to take no time at all to Lelouch. Uncharacteristically, he was asleep most of the time; he attributed that to the fact that CC had given him half her Code in order to bring him back to life. During the two hours that he _was_ awake, he was watching the news intently, and what he saw disturbed him.

"...Where terrorists struck earlier in the day. This bombing is believed to be the work of the Singapore Freedom Fighters terror group, agitating for independence from the Alliance of South-East Asian Nations. The situation here in Jakarta is very complicated, and..." Lelouch removed his headphones, shaking his head. _The world hasn't changed,_ he thought regretfully. _I just might need __to-_

"Don't." Lelouch jumped to hear CC speak suddenly from beside him. "I know what you're thinking. Don't do it, 'Luke'. I gave you back your life hoping that you'd not get yourself involved in these things." She looked away. "I might be able to take it back."

Lelouch smirked. "Somehow, I'm never truly free from your terms, am I?" He switched off the TV screen. "Don't worry, CC... I am disturbed by the news, but there's nothing that I can actually do about it, is there?"

Privately, Lelouch was looking forward to returning to Japan. He'd grown up there, albeit with a burning desire to destroy Britannia. Now he was going there to _live_, to study and make friends. He would laugh and cry and love with them, just like how it used to be in the old days, in those fragile periods of peace in between the execution of one or another of his schemes.

"_All passengers, this is your captain speaking. We will be landing at Haneda International Airport in fifteen minutes. Please fold your tables away and fasten your seatbelts, and Thank You for flying with Britannian Imperial Airways."_

**...**

Getting through customs was a breeze; Lelouch's and CC's counterfeit passports had been made by an ex-employee of the Britannian Terrorist Analysis Centre, and thus guaranteed to be perfect. Even better, CC's passport had her name as 'Charlotte Carol Overton', so that people would think that 'CC' was really her nickname.

"Okay," Nina said, "Taxis over that way... The both of you, carry your own luggage, won't you? Uncle Victor's servants aren't here to help anymore."

"I've got a weak heart, Nina," Lelouch whined. Nina scowled. He wasn't lying; after all, he _had_ been stabbed right through the heart, and through a vertebrae. The latter had presented no problem to Einstein; he'd simply replaced it with a titanium one. The heart, though, was a different story.

"CC, I'll carry yours, and Luke can take mine," Nina said. "I've got less than either of you, so his weak heart- not to mention his weak _arms_- should be able to take the strain." CC laughed, and it was Lelouch's turn to scowl. For all of Einstein's work on him, Lelouch was still as physically unfit as ever. Well, at least now he had the excuse of a weak heart to excuse him from PE.

With that thought to bolster him, he picked up Nina's suitcase without complaint and followed the two girls out to the taxi stand.

**...**

"So, Miss Einstein... These new students are your cousins, who will be living with you?" Abram Harker, the new dean of Ashford International School, appraised the three of them from behind his desk. For some reason or another, he had chosen to use a high-backed, brown leather chair, the same kind used in older mainland Britannian schools.

The effect it had on whoever was on the other side of the desk was obvious: it would serve to make Harker's modest frame appear bigger and more imposing, and it was certainly having that very effect on Nina.

Nina nodded in response to Harker's question. "Yes, Mr Harker," she replied. "My cousins, Luke and Charlotte."

"Really? Children of your uncle, I presume?" Harker looked at the two of them over his spectacles. Lelouch was unimpressed with the dean's attempts to intimidate them, and CC simply showed that impassive expression of hers. "I never knew he was married."

"Neither did I, sir," Nina said. "He says he kept it a secret from everyone."

"Indeed," Harker said. "Well then, Luke and Charlotte, you'll be glad to know that you'll both be in the same class. Here are your timetables-" He handed out three slips of paper: two identical ones for Lelouch and CC, and one for Nina. "Miss Einstein, you should get to your first lecture soon, even if you are just an observer. Luke, Charlotte- you may wait outside for your homeroom teacher to pick you up shortly. Dismissed."

The three of them left the dean's office, and Nina breathed a sigh of relief. "He never ceases to intimidate me," she said. "Have a good day, you two. Stay out of trouble, especially you, Lelouch."

"Of course," Lelouch replied coolly. "That is, if nothing pops up."

Nina narrowed her eyes at him. "Stay out of trouble," she reiterated, and walked off down the corridor without a backward glance. Her footsteps echoed down the bare floor long after she was out of sight.

Lelouch sighed. So far, things didn't look promising. Oh, sure, he might have a normal life, but by the look of things, normal meant _boring_, and he had no intention of living his life bored out of his mind.

"Excuse me," came a mid-range, not-very-cultured voice. "Are you two Luke and Charlotte Overton?" Lelouch looked up to the source of the voice and saw a tall, dark, plump and somewhat balding middle-aged man addressing them.

"I'll take that as a yes," he said, without waiting for a reply. "I'm your homeroom teacher, Mr Peters." He shook CC's hand first, then Lelouch. "Whoa, you foreign or something?" He said to Lelouch, "Cos I got a guy in class, looks exactly like you. He's Japanese. Are you two related?"

"I doubt it," Lelouch said. "Our father's Victor Einstein, the-"

"_Victor? _Oh, you must mean Victor Frank Einstein._" _Mr Peters interrupted him. "Personally, I never liked his first name. Sounded weird, somehow._ Frank_ Einstein sounds nicer, don't you think?" He set off down the corridor without bothering to see if the two of them were following.

As he walked, with Lelouch and CC in tow, he talked non-stop. It amazed Lelouch how he could prattle on and on and not repeat himself. He talked about his class ("3-B, second in the level. Sometimes I think they mean second from the drain."), his lessons ("I'm gonna be your literature teacher as well, and I hope you have a sense of humour, cos we're doing Humour In Language right now."), his students, ("I'm gonna sit you next to Kira, your twin brother, and Charlotte, you can sit between Luke and one of our class weirdoes. You look like nothing can faze you."), and what he thought about the dean ("He can't faze me none-I just stare right back at him, the same way he stares at me.")

"...At least I don't get any weird names in my class," Peters finished, as they stopped outside one of the class doorways. "Well, here we are. Ladies first." He extended his arm and gestured CC to enter.

"Well, go on," he told Lelouch as well, and followed him in. "Class!" he yelled. "These are your new classmates, Luke and CC." For a second Lelouch froze, but Peters went on, "Her name's Charlotte Carol. Who'd name their kid CC? Kinda a weird name, don't you think? If my parents did that then I'd be called RD. And you-" He pointed to a student in the back row "-would just be K, so WAKE UP, K! New Students! It's your twin brother!"

K was evidently Kira, the guy Peters had been talking about on the way to the classroom. He jerked awake, and Lelouch saw that Peters was right; this Kira looked _exactly like him!_

_Thank God he's more tanned than me,_ Lelouch thought. _And his eyes aren't... wait. His eyes are the _same colour _as mine! Just who is this guy?_

"Hey, Mr P's right," came another voice, this one belonging to a bespectacled, tall, Chinese-looking guy who for reasons unknown sat a the front of the class. "I knew it, Kira, you're not alone in this world."

"Quiet, Andrew," Peters said. "Well then, we've wasted enough time! Luke, Charlotte, you two go and sit there, next to Kira, and we can finally begin."

As Lelouch and CC took their seats, Kira leaned over to him. "Don't mind any of the comments anyone makes. I'm Kira, as you heard Mr Peters yell. Kira Nagase."

"Luke Overton," Lelouch replied. "How's Peters like at teaching?"

"Well, you're about to find out," Kira gestured to the front of the class, where Peters was making notes on the whiteboard. Class had started, and a normal life was beginning for Lelouch and CC.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Life at Ashford International

"So what d'you think of Mr Peters?" Kira asked, scrutinizing his onigiri. "Cool way of teaching, don't you think?"

Lelouch had to nod in agreement. "Personally, I don't think he treats his lessons all that seriously," he said. "Does he _really_ need to give examples from his own experiences?"

"It certainly makes his lessons more relevant," a third voice spoke up; it belonged to the girl who sat on CC's right side, Nicolette Crosswise. Lelouch was sure that he'd seen her somewhere before, but just couldn't figure out where. She had long, blue, straight hair, which flowed freely when she didn't have it tied up in a ponytail. Her face had a spunky, ready-for-anything look to it, but Lelouch had a very strong feeling that this was put on. Her eyes were a very familiar shade of greenish-grey, and they seemed to be permanently looking for a challenge.

The strange thing was, Lelouch could picture her with short, slightly curly hair, a genuine smile, and large, trusting eyes, and his mental image was giving him the shivers.

"Before Mr Peters came along, I was falling asleep in every class," Nicolette continued. "I'd have no interest in whoever it was that was talking, I'd just-"

"I know," CC put in. "Your desk's practically covered in those symbols."

"Bad habit," Nicolette said. "Even got one here," She reached up to her uniform's collar. "I don't know how it happened, but they said that-"

"Sorry!" came a third voice, calling from a distance. Nicolette's hand dropped as she turned to see who was calling. It turned out to be a platinum-haired, grey eyed, tall, and slightly pale Chinese-looking guy, the one who sat at the front of the class.

"Andrew!" Kira shouted. "Sure took your time!" He lobbed his onigiri at Andrew, who reached out a hand and caught it easily, on the run.

"Thanks, Kira," Andrew grinned at him, and sat down. "Hey you two," he said to Lelouch and CC. "Our two new students, right? You two are cousins or something right?"

Nicolette burst out laughing. "No, Andrew, they're brother and sister, and cousins of Miss Einstein."

"Really?" Andrew looked them over again. "Sure don't look related," he said shortly, and wolfed down Kira's onigiri.

"Oy!" Kira yelled. Andrew looked innocent. "What?" he said. "You threw it at me, what am I supposed to do?"

"Where's Andrew from?" Lelouch asked Nicolette, as Andrew and Kira got into a shouting match, with Andrew yelling in a language Lelouch didn't understand, but was sure he was using swear words.

"Singapore," Nicolette replied. "The terrorist country." At the shocked look on Lelouch's face, she continued, "Oh please. Look at him. You really think _he_ could be a terrorist?" She looked back at the two boys, specifically at Andrew, who was now shouting at Kira in very terrible English.

"That at least explains why he speaks like that," CC said, "And how come he has an English first name and a Chinese surname."

"Yep," Nicolette nodded, lying down on the grass. Lelouch leaned back and enjoyed the moment. A warm summer's day, friends yelling in the background, he with two girl classmates beside him... _I could get used to this,_ Lelouch thought. _Just forget all the troubles in the world, and-_

"Hey-Luke?" came Nicolette's voice. "Which part of Britannia are you from?"

Lelouch froze for a second, the answer having suddenly slip his mind. "Benning Wentworth," CC said. "Near Pendragon."

"The capital? Wow," Nicolette said. "Did you ever get to go there? Before the FLEIA bomb hit, I mean."

"Yes," Lelouch said. "In fact, we _were_ there, on the morning before the capital was bombed."

"My goodness," Nicolette murmured. Her voice was getting soft and sleepy; Lelouch looked down, and true enough, her eyes were closed, her head resting on her hands. "Must've been terrible..."

"Huh. Gone to sleep again," Andrew's voice suddenly came from Lelouch's left side. "Sleep sleep sleep... When will she ever get out of it?"

"This happens often?" CC asked. "She didn't look so bad in class."

"That's cos of Mr Peters," Kira said. "That's the only thing that sustains her. According to some of the teachers, she wasn't like this last time."

Lelouch immediately picked up on that. "Last time?" he said. "What-she's a repeat student?"

"Something like that," Andrew said. "Remember the First Black Rebellion? The teachers say that some time after the school got besieged, she went kinda crazy. Almost killed a few people and then herself, like Miss Einstein-"

"Andrew," Kira said warningly. "Remember that these two are her _cousins_!"

"Oh crap. Sorry," Andrew said quickly. "Anyway, it's not that she tried to kill people that's the thing, it's _how_ she tried to kill them."

"How?" Lelouch tried his hardest to keep his voice calm.

Andrew looked sheepish."Ok. I never saw any of this myself, but..." he lowered his already low voice. "They say that she tried to cut a cross symbol on her victims... and that she almost slit her throat open with that same symbol. The one on her neck." Andrew pointed to his own neck as he said this.

"But you never actually did see it happen?" CC pressed the question.

Andrew shook his head, as did Kira. "This was before our time," Kira said. "When we came here, it was worse sia." Andrew added. "It was during the Second Battle of Japan, with the Enigma Emperor fighting Clovis."

"You were so scared," Kira said, chuckling, "You dived under the bed and clenched your eyes so tight!"

"Did not!" Andrew retorted. "Luke, don't believe him. He-" He glared at Kira, who was doubled over with silent laughter. "You were scared also lor! What the hell man! Say me so much! You-"

"Sorry," CC said, "Is that Singlish you're speaking?"

"Huh?" Andrew looked momentarily confused. "Um... yeah, it is. Bad habit, but it tends to slip when I get annoyed like _now_." He snapped the last word at Kira, who was still trying hard not to laugh.

"Interesting... accent?" CC said. "Does it count as an accent or a dialect?"

"Hard to say, actually," this time, the voice was totally unexpected; it was Mr Peters' voice. All of them jumped at hearing him. He grinned. "Sorry to break up your happy gathering, but this just came in on the news: There's been another attack in Jakarta., and this time, the Singaporeans _have_ claimed responsibility." At their downcast faces, he continued, "I'm not saying that _you_ did it, Andrew! And think about it, could you have? No! You'd have to have a really good cell phone, for one thing." His joking grin came on. "Otherwise you'd be like, 'Hey terrorists, we can't go on anymore... I gotta pay my cell phone bills. International calls cost a bomb.'"

In spite of himself, Lelouch genuinely laughed along with the rest of them.

**...**

"Crosswise, Crosswise..." Lelouch muttered to himself as he searched the school's database (on Nina's computer) later that night. "Crawford... Cromley... Crosswise." He clicked on the name, and froze when he saw the photo. He _had_ seen her before.

"Lelouch, where-" Nina's voice preceded her person. "Oy- stop using my computer! I don't know what you're up to, and I don't-"

"I did this to her," Lelouch said. "Nicolette Crosswise. I never knew..." He looked up at Nina. "I used her to test out my Geass the last time, Nina. I never knew it would do this to her." He switched screens, bringing up a BIGLOBE news article, showing Nicolette on an ambulance stretcher, evidently sedated and strapped down, a long bandage wrapped around her neck. He switched to another screen, this time a police file, showing Ashford's art studio two. There was blood all over the floor, and an Xacto art knife, evidently the one that she'd used to cut herself with.

Lelouch switched to a third screen, and Nina recognised this picture with a shock; it had been taken during the school festival of 2017, and showed Nicolette with a group of friends, all in costume for the day. Nicolette was wearing a witch outfit, and had an innocent smile on her face.

"I don't know what to do, Nina," Lelouch said. "I don't know whether to apologize, or just keep quiet, or what. And the thing is, I know I can't just do nothing..." He shuddered. "God, I don't know whether I can still sleep after what I've found out."

In her mind, Nina could hear a small voice saying, _Wow. He'd never do that in the past. _Out loud, she said, "Well... Her birthday's coming up, isn't it? You could try something there. You don't have to apologize outright, but maybe... just do something to make her feel better."

"I hope so," Lelouch said. He studied the computer screen for another few moments, then closed all the windows. "Sorry for not asking before using," he said, letting Nina have control over the computer again.

"Thank you," Nina said acidly. "Now, you, go to sleep! You have school tomorrow, and I'm preparing a physics test next week. Don't peek at the answers."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Shinbashi

It was Saturday morning, and uncharacteristically, Lelouch was nowhere to be found. Nina took little notice of this, as she was still busy with the physics paper she had been trying to author for the past four days.

Eventually, she gave up, and headed to the kitchenette to get another cup of tea (with increased levels of caffeine, courtesy of Joyce Kell, the chemistry lecturer), and saw the post-it on the refrigerator door.At first, Nina felt alarm as she read it, but as the message went on, her smile became wider and wider.

_Dear Miss Einstein,_

_We've abducted your two cousins for a day out at Shinbashi. If you ever want to see them again, do NOT call and ask them to come back to help you for anything at all, or we'll have them moved to our rooms. I'm pretty sure we can arrange that with the dean. Please do not attempt to rescue your cousins yourself._

_Anyway, we should be done by night. See ya then!_

_Nicolette, Kira, and Andrew. ^-^_

...

"This is ridiculous," Lelouch complained. "How do you two put up with this? We are _not_ here to waste time!"

"Maybe not, but they sure are," Kira said, gesturing at CC and Nicolette in front of them. So far, the three boys had waited outside seven different stores while the girls went in and picked, compared, admired, but _never_ decided which outfit they liked the most. Nicolette had had to drag CC into the first two stores and pick outfits for her, but over the next five stores, CC's indifference had wavered, shook, and finally collapsed as she found what Andrew called "neo-Gothic" clothes.

"How do you two stand it?" Lelouch asked again. "This... this waiting and waiting and never getting any result!" He glared at the two boys.

Kira shrugged. "It's good training," he said simply.

"Yeah? Good for what?" Andrew said. "Till you have a real girlfriend?"

"Got a problem with that?" Kira shot back. "Just because you got rejected twice-"

"You dare say?" Andrew growled, slipping into Singlish. "You dare to say anything-"

"What? We should let Luke hear the story." Kira went beside Lelouch for support. "What d'you say, Luke? Should we hear Andrew's sad story?"

"Talk some more and I will whack you until you die," Andrew snarled. "I warn you already."

Lelouch looked at Kira. He, too, had his upper lip curled back and his hands were slowly clenching and unclenching at his sides. Lelouch didn't know what made him do it, but suddenly he was standing in front of Andrew, facing Kira, holding out his arms in protection.

"If Andrew doesn't want it to be heard then it's okay, Kira," Lelouch heard himself say. "Some things are really too painful to be said."

"You-" Kira began, taking an angry step forward. Lelouch stood his ground, glaring into Kira's face. "But he-" He stopped again. "You don't-"

"Stand down, Kira," Lelouch said, using the same tone he used to use when resolving fights between fellow Black Knights. "Stand down."

Kira took a long, hard look over Lelouch's shoulder, at Andrew, and stormed of in the opposite direction. Lelouch spun around to look at Andrew, only to see him stalking off as well. Halfway through his cell phone rang; he picked it up and answered it without breaking stride. Lelouch turned the other way; already Kira's back was indistinguishable from the crowd.

"Where the hell did everyone go?" Lelouch spun around to see Nicolette and CC out of the store, and his eyes widened to see the carrier in CC's hand.

"You bought something?" Lelouch asked, slightly speechless.

"Yes, I did!" CC practically gushed. "It was really nice, all ruffles and lace and-" she broke off mid-sentence. "Back to the more important question: where did Kira and Andrew go?"

Lelouch sighed. "Well... That's a long story," he said. "Kira started saying something like he wanted to tell Andrew's sad tale of romance and-"

"That's enough," Nicolette said, cutting Lelouch off. "Andrew's romance is a very sensitive topic." She took the lead. "Come on. We'll look for Kira first."

"And Andrew?" Lelouch asked. "What about him?"

"He'll get over it," Nicolette said carelessly. "He always does."

...

Despite the note, Nina went out to Shinbashi anyway, to the Britannian-style gardens close by the shopping malls. Her reasons for the outing were twofold: one, she could get away from the crazy hustle of being a schoolteacher for a while, and two, she wouldn't be targeted in the Gardens.

_Ever since Schneizel misused my FLEIA bomb... _Nina shook with silent anger. _It was NEVER supposed to be used! I hope that bastard dies a long, slow, terrible death that-_

"Nina?" came a familiar voice. Nina jumped, looking for the source of the voice, and looked up to a concerned, Japanese-Britannian mixed face framed by dark red hair.

"Kallen?" Nina whispered, not daring to believe it. "What brings you here?"

"Oh, you know," Kallen shrugged. "Just walking around." She took a seat on the bench beside Nina. "How are you?"

"Great," Nina said, "Got a job at Ashford. Physics lecturer. Met up with some old friends-" She cut herself off in time. "Never mind me, what about you? What've you been up to since... you know... Lelouch's assassination?"

Kallen smiled and held up her left hand. Even in the dim light, Nina could see the single diamond set in the platinum band around her fourth finger.

"Oh my God!" Nina squealed. "You're getting married? To whom?"

Kallen smiled happily. "Friend at work! We haven't set a date yet, but we're definitely tying the knot! My mother was so happy when I told her!" Her face fell at the mention of her mother, and suddenly all the joy at announcing her marriage faded away. "I think."

"Kallen?" Nina said, "What do you mean, 'you think'?"

"Refrain." Kallen said. "It did something to her, Nina. Her and the rest of the ex-addicts. It got too far into their system and now she can't differentiate tomorrow from yesterday, or today from what happened weeks or even years ago."

Kallen sighed. "I used to think that it was all worth it, you know? Leading a double life as Kallen Stadtfeld and Kallen Kouzuki, fighting Britannia, sneaking around when I was still a Black Knight... But..." She looked up at the stars. "It was my mother I was fighting for, Nina. Now it's all over but she doesn't realise that. Sometimes she doesn't even recognize me as her daughter!"

Nina hesitated, then steeled herself and said, "How long... How long does she have?"

Kallen looked down sharply. "What do you mean? My mother isn't dying!"

Nina shook her head sadly. "I'm afraid she is, Kallen. We did some research on Refrain, and we found out that it induces Type-A Alois Syndrome in order for the drug to work. This means that whoever uses Refrain, even the tiniest amount... they'll start to develop real Alois A. I'm sorry, Kallen... Your mother's dying. Slowly."

Kallen looked thunderstruck. "Th-that can't be..." she whimpered. "You can't be serious..."

"Kallen," Nina took her hands in hers. "I'm not lying. I'm so, so sorry, Kallen. There's nothing anyone can do."

"Alois A?" Kallen repeated. Nina nodded. "At the very least," she said, "You can tell yourself that this was bound to happen sooner or later. It's just... come sooner, that's all."

Kallen blinked away the tears that were welling up in her eyes, and, shaking her head, she got up and walked away without another word or a backward glance. Nina sighed.

"Lelouch..." she whispered. "Was it worth it? All that you did, was it really worth it?" She looked up at the stars, just like how Kallen had done. "When I get back, I'm gonna have to ask you-" She jumped as a violent yell split the air.

"God _dammit, _we had a deal!" someone was shouting close by. "You will _not _back out on me!"

"Who the hell-?" Nina twisted around on the bench she was sitting on to locate the sound of the voice. She found it quickly: a tall, pale, platinum haired, Chinese looking guy, wearing frameless glasses.

In other words, Andrew Li.

Nina looked at him with a raised eyebrow; it wasn't like Andrew to lose his cool and shout like that, not even to Kira, who did piss him off at times. More importantly, wasn't he supposed to be with Lelouch and CC? Nina decided to get up and confront him.

"You-" Andrew was still talking very heatedly when Nina stalked over. "No, _you_ listen. I provide what you need, and you provide me with what I need! How am I supposed to get anything done if you do not-" Nina tapped him on the shoulder and he spun around, anger still written all over his face. When he saw Nina, he blanched.

"I will call you back," he said to whoever it was on the phone. He cut the call and brightened up. "Hi Miss Einstein! Fancy seeing you here!"

Nina pointed towards the phone. "Who was that?"

"Just an idiot," Andrew said. "I really shouldn't have gotten so worked up over it."

"Right," Nina said doubtfully. "Look, Andrew, if there's anything wrong, you can always just say it. Even to me. I'm not just here to give you homework, you know."

"It's okay, Miss Einstein," Andrew said. "Really, it's fine."

"Okay then," Nina said. "Oh, what are you doing here? Where's Kira and Lelouch and the others?"

"Long story, actually, me and Kira got into a little argument and L-" Andrew looked at her strangely. "Who was that that you asked about, besides Kira?"

"Le-" Nina caught herself. "Luke. Luke, of course. Where is he? And Nicolette and Charlotte?"

"Eheheh," Andrew said. "I'm at fault, actually, I stormed off. Sorry for abandoning your cousins."

"Just-Just don't do it again, okay?" Nina stammered. _Did I say Lelouch just now? Did I? Oh, damn, I can't remember! What if he noticed?_

"Are you okay?" Andrew was looking at her concernedly. "You look kinda funny. Are you sweating? Caught a cold or something?"

"I might have!" Nina said quickly. "Listen, I'll head back to the school first, you... you get back soon, okay? Don't stay out too long or you might catch a cold like me as well!" She turned and started walking away as quickly as she could without running.

"Take care!" Andrew called after her. He put his cell phone to his chin in a thinking gesture. "Lelouch, hm?" he said to himself. "Now why would she say that?"


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Cellphone Confusion

Nina burst into her apartment, locked the door, latched it, and slid home the deadbolts before running into Lelouch's room. "Lelouch we've got-" she began, but stopped halfway; his room was empty. She ran to CC's room; equally empty.

"Right," she told herself. "They're just not back yet, that's all. It's perfectly normal, they are teenagers out on a trip with their friends, after all. I would do the same." She took a few deep breaths to reassure herself. "They're fine. Not in any danger at all." She paced up and down the hallway. "Oh, who am I kidding? I've given them all away!" She grabbed her handbag and scrabbled around inside it for her cell phone, fished it out, and dialled Lelouch's number.

...

Lelouch was, at the moment, trying to find Kira in the basement level of the shopping mall. The ambience wasn't helping: evidently, there was some event going on, and the stupid announcer was speaking so loudly on the microphone that Lelouch was convinced that he couldn't hear himself think.

"Dammit," he muttered. "Back in the old days, this _never _would have happened." He tried to glance over the heads of the crowd to locate Kira, but to no avail. In desperation, he pulled out his cell phone and dialled Kira's number, but as bad luck would have it, the organizer of the event began blaring music over the gigantic speakers.

"F-" The rest of the word was drowned out by the music, so Lelouch angrily pressed his cell phone's red button to cancel the call.

...

"Ack!" Nina yelped as her call got cut off. "Why would he do that?!" She looked at her cell phone desperately; it plainly said, CALL DISCONNECTED. She started to feel panic rising within her, but forced herself to calm down.

"All right," she said, "Something just happened, that's all. Something perfectly normal. He'll call back in a while, I'm sure of it." She took a deep breath. "Calm down," she told herself. "Calm down, calm down, calm... Agh! I'm not calming down!!"

Nina bent over and took another few deep breaths. "I need a shower," she told herself. "That'll calm me down."

...

"I can't find him," Lelouch said to Nicolette, as soon as he had gotten away from the noise. "Not in the basement, not in the hardware store, not in Art Companion."

"_Just relax, Luke!_" Nicolette replied. "_He'll turn up. At least we know he's still here. If he were leaving,he'd call me. We're still walking around, see how much our arms can carry._"

Lelouch sneered. "Yeah, yeah," he said. "I'll still keep looking. Bye." He hung up, made for the nearest pillar, and thought hard as he leaned against it.

_Kira isn't happy. That much I know, _he thought. _He'd usually be in Art Companion, but since he isn't, we've got to think where's the second most likely place he'd go to. But who would know? Let's see..._

Lelouch punched in Nina's number on his cell phone, and pressed the green button.

...

Nina leaned against the cool wall of the shower as the warm water beat down on her skin. "Hmm," she sighed contentedly. _I was right, a shower does wonders. _Out loud, she said, "I guess I was right. There's really nothing to worry about."

Then her cell phone rang. Nina jumped in surprise; not a very smart thing to do in the shower. She slipped, fell backward, and hit her shoulder on the floor. Wincing, she got up, got her cell phone, and answered it, leaning precariously on the sink for support.

"Lelouch?" she said, and promptly slipped again on the wet shower tiles. "Ack!" She threw out her hands for support, letting go of her cell phone...

... which smashed against the wall and broke open, spilling the battery and SIM card onto the floor.

...

"Nina? Nina!" Lelouch shouted into his phone. "Hello?" He looked at the display. "Dammit," he swore, and punched in CC's number. "Come on, come on..." he muttered

"_Luke?" _came CC's voice. "_Did you find Kira yet?_"

"No, but something's happened to Nina,"Lelouch said. "We've gotta get back quick. Leave Nicolette to wait for Kira and meet me ASAP at the entrance." He disconnected and tried to run to the main entrance, but stopped before he'd scarcely gone ten metres.

"Dammit," he panted. "I... really... need to work out... weak heart or no." Still gasping for breath, he continued on his way.

...

Nina sighed in frustration and raged at her jumpiness, her broken cell phone, and most of all, her stupidity for leaning so far out of the shower and not holding on to anything.

Her apartment doorbell rang, long and insistent, and Nina, still raging at herself, got up out of the bathroom and went to answer it.

Stark naked.

And to make matters worse, standing outside the door was Andrew Li.

There was an awkward silence, in which Nina tried to understand why Andrew was standing there with a shellshocked expression on his face.

Then Mr Peters and the dean walked by.

All hell broke loose.

...

"Come on, come on..." Lelouch muttered as the monorail train seemed to take forever to arrive. "Dammit, why doesn't anyone answer their phone?!"

CC cleared her throat. "Dead batteries, noisy environment, or simply a desire not to talk to you right now," she said. "Seriously, why don't you take a moment to calm down and _think_, like how you used to?"

"I tried," Lelouch said, "But it's not working. It's like... my ability to think up possible explanations has become disconnected with my ability to rationalise those explanations, you know what I mean?" He glared at her. "This must be your fault."

"Me?" CC said incredulously. "Might I remind you that I brought you back to life, probably at the cost of my own, and _you are blaming me for this? _How ungrateful is that?"

"CC," Lelouch said, trying to be calm. "Did you ever ask yourself if I _wanted _to live again? Did you? I don't think so."

CC was quiet until the monorail pulled into the station, then she said, as she was boarding the train, "You might not have wanted to live again, but _I_ wanted it to be so." She looked up at Lelouch when they were both safely aboard. "I've already explained to you why I did it, and I'm not repeating myself."

Anxious as he was about the situation at hand, CC's words silenced Lelouch for the rest of the journey back to Ashford.

...

Mr Peters yelled, "Holy shit!"

Andrew yelled something that sounded like "Water truck."

Nina yelped as she realised that she was naked, and ducked behind the door.

The dean pushed his glasses higher on his nose and said icily, "Miss Einstein, kindly explain what is going on."

"I- ah..." Nina stammered. "It's like this, see, I-"

The dean cut her off. "Miss Nina Einstein, are you aware that your very presence has made me bend the school rules to near-breaking point?" The light from the corridor reflected off his spectacles such that Nina couldn't see his eyes. "You are, after all, the 'Mother of FLEIA'... And a lesbian mother to boot. Now, though, having an affair with a student so soon after joining the school..."

"That's not true," Andrew said. "Sir, this looks like what you're thinking, but-"

"Be quiet, Andrew Li!" the dean snapped at him. "I was not talking to you." He glared at Nina again. "You are an aberration and an abnormality and a stain on the school's history. I don't care what actually happened here, but you will submit your resignation to me in two days." He turned and walked away without another word.

"Hey, that's not fair!" Peters called out after him. "Mr Harker, you can't just-" He tried to reason with the dean, but Harker had already turned the corner. "Ah, damn," Peters said. He turned to Andrew. "I don't know what happened here, Andrew, but you take care of Miss Einstein in the meantime, okay?" And he took off, fairly running after the dean.

Nina barely heard anything after the dean had cut off her explanation. All she knew was that the dean had reminded her of the destructiveness of FLEIA and he'd exposed her sexual orientation to Peters and Andrew. While both of them could be trusted not to talk, it was humiliating beyond belief, and she now felt cold and completely empty inside.

"... stein?Miss Einstein?" Andrew's persistent voice finally reached her. She looked up at him, eyes brimming with tears. "Come on," he said, "This isn't the time to go to pieces." He put a hand on her still-bare arm. "We'll try and reason with Mr Harker. You won't get fired."

Nina sniffed. "Andrew," she said, "Does any of what Mr Harker said bother you at all?"

Andrew rolled his eyes. "Wah lau," he swore. "Important things she don't care, unimportant thing care so much. Come on lah!" He said, his Singlish accent coming out really badly now, "Which way you swing isn't important right now, it's-!" Nina flung her arms around him and sobbed gratefully onto his shoulder.

_If there's one person who can accept me..._ she thought, _There will be more, definitely._

"Um... Miss Einstein?" Andrew said. "Sorry to remind you, but you're still naked." He looked around at the sound of a shopping bag dropping to the floor. "And your cousins are back."

Nina yelped in shock, jumped off Andrew, and ran back into the apartment. Andrew turned to Lelouch and CC, waved, and walked right past them, saying, "She'll explain everything. G'night."

Lelouch's mind rebooted from the shock of the scene it had seen, and he turned to see Andrew walking away, talking animatedly on his cell phone.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Seeds are Planted

Nicolette glanced at her watch. "Only eight?" she said to herself. "Dammit, Charlotte, Miss Einstein's fine... why'd you have to listen to your brother so?" Damn, but browsing through the dresses just wasn't as interesting if she was by herself, so she stepped out of the store and leaned on the railing that bordered the floor and looked down to the basement below.

_All alone again, _Nicolette thought. _Ever since my suicide attempt... but I can't remember it at all! _Why _can't I remember? And they say that nobody visited me while I was unconscious in hospital but... I don't believe that!_

Nicolette sighed inwardly, trailing her hand on the railing as she absent-mindedly made her way to the escalator. _But what if it's true? What if nobody visited me? Am I that disliked?_

_No way! _She thought, as she rode the escalator up. _I've got friends! Kira and Andrew and now Luke and Charlotte..._

_But you didn't have them two years ago, did you? _A different voice in her head said. _Where are your old friends, Nicolette? The ones you enrolled with?_

"Stop it," Nicolette said quietly. "They've graduated, haven't they? They moved on, and I had to stay behind cos I missed a year."

_And whose fault was that? _The voice continued. _Not yours, Nicolette, oh no. Tell me, did you ever know _why _you liked those cross marks? Did you ever ask yourself why you went around carving them? Why you tried to kill people by carving it on their throats?_

"Stop it!" Nicolette screamed out loud. "Shut up! Stop talking to me! I don't even know who you are!"

_You do know, Nicolette. You know who I am. I am your vengeance, anger, and hate at whoever made you do this-_

Nicolette grabbed her head and bent forward, twirling around in a effort to stop the voice.

_It won't work, you know. I'm you. You can't make me go away._

"Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up..." she murmured, still twirling. "GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!!" she shrieked, long past caring at the crowds that were staring at her.

"Nicolette?" came Kira's voice. She jerked her head up sudden;y and sure enough, there he was. "You okay? You're making an awful scene..." He reached out a helping hand. "Come on. We gotta go. Andrew's on his way back already." As he helped Nicolette to her feet, he continued, "Where're Luke and Charlotte?"

"Luke was convinced something'd happened to Miss Einstein, so he got Charlotte to go back with him," Nicolette said. "Over-active imagination, if you ask me. Which reminds me," she glared at Kira. "Where were you? Luke said you and Andrew had a fight. Where the heck did you go?"

"Nicolette, do we really have to go there..?" Kira said wearily. Inwardly, Nicolette grinned and said to her evil inner voice, _See? Kira is my friend, no matter what you say. They moved on, and so did I._

...

Lelouch set down a glass of Gottwald & Alstreim orange juice and took a seat. Andrew had gone back to the apartment he shared with Kira, so now Nina could say what she couldn't say in front of him. She didn't have much to say.

"I said your name, Lelouch," Nina said. "I said your name... in front of Andrew. I don't know if he noticed or not, but-"

Lelouch waved aside the rest of her sentence, just like he used to do in the old days. "Either way," he said, "If he did notice, he didn't pursue the question, did he? If he does start asking, we can just say that I bear an uncanny resemblance... to myself." Suddenly he started to laugh.

"Are you okay?" CC said. "Laughing like that, it's giving me a bad feeling. You used to do that when you were still Zero, and it gave me a bad feeling then too."

"I just realised a crucial flaw," Lelouch said. "We're talking about Andrew like we _know _him! We don't! Nina, fire up your computer, I need to check up on our Singaporean friend."

Nina smiled and pulled out a dossier from a pile of news magazines on the table. "I thought you'd say that, so that night after you did your research on Nicolette, I went and printed out hers, Kira's and Andrew's records. Here's Andrew's." She handed him the moderately thick paper file.

Lelouch took it without saying thanks and leafed through it. "Interesting," he said. "Andrew Li Jian Rong. Born in 1998? He's twenty-one years old. Let's see, what else do we have..." He frowned. "Only son of Jasper Li, the main proponent of ASEAN? That is dangerous. We've got to-" he broke off as his cell pone rang. "Speak of the devil," he said, and answered it. "Andrew? Why are you calling me at this time of night? Turn on the TV news? Why?" He motioned for one of the girls to do it. CC sighed, pushed the power button on the remote control, and yelped in surprise.

Nina tuned to watch and gasped. "No way," she said. "The terrorist situation has gotten this serious?"

Lelouch disconnected. "Just what is going-" his words caught in his throat as he saw the announcement:

EMPRESS NUNNALLY TO VISIT ASEAN TO DEFUSE TENSIONS BETWEEN TERRORISTS AND GOVERNMENT.

...

Five thousand, three hundred and fifteen kilometres away, someone else was having a worried cell phone conversation.

"Leader, what-" the man was interrupted by whoever was on the other end of the phone. "Yah, we're all ready, just that the people from Professor didn't come. Yah, we got all the Knightmares ready already. Mm. Yah. Okay, but... sir, you really sure about this? They-" He was cut off a second time. "Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Okay, I understand." He hung up.

"Well?" asked his subordinate expectantly. Slowly, the first man nodded. "The Leader says yes," he said. "We will do it. Tell the men to prepare for Operation Blind Rule."

"Yes, sir."

...

The next day was Sunday, and Lelouch awoke relatively late to see a police van and patrol car pared in the school courtyard. For a second, he panicked, thinking that they had come for him, but he quickly calmed down as he remembered that he was now, for all intents and purposes, a normal schoolboy.

So reassured, he closed his eyes with the intention of going back to sleep, but as he did so, he became aware of a few things: first, there was someone breathing deeply and steadily behind him.

Second, there was a heat source near his back, quote possibly around the vicinity of the breathing.

Third, his back seemed to be unclothed... and for that matter, so did the rest of his body.

Steeling himself, he turned to face whoever it was who was in bed beside him.

Fair, flawless, almost-white skin, eyes closed, short, bright green hair, with a contented smile on her lips...

...and not

wearing

a thing.

...

Mr Peters opened an eye sleepily, glanced at his alarm clock, said, "Strange, I could've sworn I heard it ring. Oh well," and promptly went back to sleep again.

...

Lelouch scrabbled away from CC, grabbing as much of the blanket as he could. CC stirred and opened her eyes, still clouded with sleep. "Wha..?" she slurred. "Oh...Lelouch." She smiled and closed her eyes again.

And her eyes shot open a second later.

...

Mr Peters glanced at his alarm clock again. "Dammit, I really, really could've sworn that it rang!"

...

Nina, wearing her infamous 'Dress of Red Death', stood grimly before Lelouch and CC who were both seated on extreme ends of the sofa, fully clothed, and not meeting each others' eyes.

"Could either of you explain the inhuman screams I heard this morning?" Nina said sarcastically. "Yesterday, I was in trouble. If word gets out about the position the two of you were in this morning, you two will be in seriously deep shit. The dean will throw all three of us out, and what then? I'm not going back to Britannia, I tell you. My life isn't safe there."

She nodded to Lelouch. "Explain."

"I don't know how," Lelouch said. "Personally, I suspect that someone poisoned the orange juice, since nobody else drank it except the two of us, and I don't remember anything that happened after I drank it."

Nina raised an eyebrow cynically. "Really?" she said. "I'll get that juice checked later then. Meantime, do either of you two remember just what the hell you did last night?"

There was a dead silence which stretched uneasily between the three of them, until someone rang the doorbell. Nina shot a glance at Lelouch and CC that plainly said, "Search your consciences and be prepared for the consequences!" and went to answer the door.

Kallen was standing outside it.

"K-Kallen?" Nina as taken aback. "What are you doing here? I just saw you yesterday, you said you were getting married to a guy from work-"

"This is my work," Kallen said. "Sorry I forgot to tell you, Nina. I'm with the police now. I'm gonna need to ask you a few questions."

"About what?" Nina stood aside to invite her in. "Need to come in?"

"Actually, I think you'd better come out," Kallen said, and pulled her out into the corridor, closing the door behind her. "What exactly did Mr Harker say to you last night?"

Nina hesitated, not knowing whether to tell Kallen the truth: that Harker had insulted her, reminded her of the destructiveness of her FLEIA bomb, and fired her without waiting for an explanation... She steeled herself and started to reply, but Kallen spoke first.

"We need to know, Nina, and we can't let the students find out yet," Kallen said. "Harker was murdered, Nina. Shot and stabbed. We need to know you didn't have anything to do with this."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Cracks in the Glass of Life

The uneasy silence remained unbroken even after Nina had left the room. Lelouch and CC were still facing away from each other, both too embarrassed to speak.

Eventually, Lelouch's cell phone rang, and, glad for the interruption, he answered it, a little too quickly. "Hello?" he said. Not much else came out from that conversation, except a few unintelligible grunts and noises of acknowledgement.

He finally put down the phone. "Kira and Andrew are coming over," he said. "Listen, CC..." he hesitated, not daring to broach the topic of what had happened last night. "They might've been involved in this, as a practical joke or something, but whatever happens, don't say anything until they ask _directly _about the orange juice, okay? We do not want them thinking we're an incestuous couple or anything like that."

CC nodded. "Got it," she said. "What did they say they wanted?"

Lelouch shrugged. "They said it's something to do with Nicolette, but they wouldn't say exactly what. All this secrecy..." He shook his head. "Something's up, CC, and I don't like it."

...

Nina registered a strange mix of emotions at Kallen's news. "Killed?" she repeated. "But... who? And why? The dean didn't have any-"

"I know, that's what we're trying to find out," Kallen said. "We're trying to get hold of everyone the dean spoke to last night. You, your colleague Peters, all the staff at least." She paused, thinking. "Did any of the students come into contact with him yesterday night?"

"Yes- well, only in passing," Nina said. "Harker was involved in other things at that point of time."

"What other things?"

"Yelling at me." Nina looked down at the floor, too embarrassed to meet Kallen's eyes.

Kallen was about to reply when she heard a commotion down the corridor, and looked up to see two students, one with brown hair, one platinum. Both stopped dead in their tracks upon seeing her.

"Kira," Nina said. "Andrew. What brings you two here today?"

"Um," Andrew began, eyeing Kallen nervously. "We were gonna ask Luke and Charlotte for some help with something." He drew his eyes away from Kallen. "I-if it's inconvenient-"

"No, no not at all," Nina heard herself say. "You can borrow them for the day. Don't come back too late."

They nodded fervently, knocked on the door of her apartment, and went in. Kallen looked at Nina curiously.

"Who're Luke and Charlotte?" she asked. "You related to them?"

Nina nodded. "My uncle's illegitimate children," she said. "I never knew. No one in our family did."

"Your uncle...?" Kallen frowned, then her eyes widened. "You mean you're related to Victor Einstein? _Doctor_ Einstein, the biologist?"

"He's that famous?" Nina was bewildered.

"Hmph. Notorious is more like it," Kallen said. "I think we'll go down to the cafeteria. Better place to talk, it's more peaceful..."

...

Nina, Kallen, and Kallen's patrol partner, Shiro, and Mr Peters were all sitting at a table in the deserted school cafeteria, talking about Mr Harker's murder. At least, that was what Shiro and Peters were doing; Kallen was briefing Nina about her Uncle Victor's dubious record with the law.

"You are aware that your uncle Victor was a controversial voice in the science community for proposing a theory to bring dead bodies back to life?" Kallen was saying. "He and his associate Dr Shelley both."

"Um... right," Nina said, reassuring herself that Kallen was just here to investigate the murder case, nothing more. "I think that was why he and my father hardly ever spoke eye-to-eye."

"Maybe, but that isn't the point here," Kallen said. "About two years ago, Victor was spotted here in Japan. What he was doing is anyone's guess... and the creepy thing is, someone saw him _here._" She brought up an image of the Britannian Cemetery, still allowed to stand up till today, though the number of Britannians buried there were dwindling by the month.

"Your uncle left the next night," Kallen said. "And in the day, some cemetery workers found an empty coffin in an empty grave."

Nina fought back a shudder. "Was it anyone we knew?"

"You bet," Kallen said. She tapped her PDA and brought up an image of the empty grave. "Our classmate's. Shirley's."

Nina's shudder fought back and came out to the surface. Kallen noticed and nodded grimly. "Your uncle may or may not have been involved in grave robbing, but that's hardly the point here, is it? What we need to know right now is where you were between the hours of 2300 last night and 0330 this morning."

"In my apartment," Nina replied. "Come on, Kallen, do I look like the type of person to kill anyone?"

_You tried to kill _me _with a bloody nuclear bomb about three years ago, _Kallen thought involuntarily. She shook her head and smiled. "Nope," she turned to her patrol partner. "If you're done, we'll need to meet those experts at the crime scene..."

...

"Why are we back here again?" Lelouch asked, once he realised that they were back at the same shopping mall in Shinbashi that they were yesterday.

"Because, you dummy..." Andrew trailed off as he realised that there really wasn't any good reason. "Um... because... it is... Nicolette's favourite hangout!" His last three words came out so fast it sounded like they were joined together.

Lelouch glared at him in disbelief. "So?"

"So, you dummy," Kira had joined in as well. "There has to be _something _here that she really, really wants! It's her birthday on Tuesday!"

Lelouch blinked. "Hey, that's right..." he said. "I asked Nina to check for me. Something she likes, huh? Something... something..." Then it hit him, and hit him hard.

_Nobody actually knew what the hell to get Nicolette for her birthday!_

Lelouch dragged a hand wearily across his face. "Let me get this straight," he said. "None of you know what to get Nicolette for her birthday, so your best guess was to come here and find out?"

Kira and Andrew nodded. "We thought that we'd split into two pairs, one pair to get her gift and the other to prepare for the party," Andrew said. "I've got everything organised, all we need's food, drink,-"

"And the gift," Lelouch reminded him. He made an angry noise. "Fine. I'll go with Andrew to get the food and you can go with Charlotte to try and find Nicolette's gift."

"Wh-why me?" Kira said. "I'd much rather-"

"Because you called us out here, Charlotte spent a lot of time with Nicolette, and you were with Nicolette yesterday, after all of us were back at school," Lelouch said, cutting him off. "Just go. Me and Andrew'll be down at the supermarket." He turned to Andrew. "Come on, man, let's go." He led the way, and Andrew signalled Kira to call them when they were done.

And with that, they left Kira and CC all alone.

"So... where do we start?"

...

Peters closed the door of his apartment and double locked it after Shiro had left him, and breathed a huge sigh of relief. It always made him nervous when police or any kind of authority came to find him.

Taking deep breaths to steady himself, he staggered further into his apartment, intending to collapse onto his bed and sleep the rest of the afternoon away. He was getting too old for this kind of excitement, even if the police didn't manage to find anything to incriminate him.

"Heh, it's not like they really do have anything to get me for anyway," he reassured himself.

At that moment, his cell phone rang.

...

"Let's see..." Andrew studied the drinks like he was studying for an exam. "You think Florida's Natural juice would be better, or Gottwald & Alstreim?"

"Andrew," Lelouch growled. "I. Don't. Give. A. Damn. Just hurry up and pick one!" Lelouch's patience was starting to wear very thin; Andrew had done this for just about every item they'd come across, and Lelouch was getting so impatient that he didn't care that Andrew had mentioned Gottwald & Alstreim juice.

Andrew made a face. "You didn't have to snap like that. Geesh..." he picked a carton of G&A orange juice (the most popular flavour from that brand) and put it into the basket. "I can't help it I want everything to be perfect."

"Why? You in love with Nicolette or something?" Lelouch shot back. "I couldn't care less. I-"

"Ha ha. Close, but no coconut. Kira's the one."

Lelouch turned. "Sorry?"

Andrew refused to meet his eye, speaking instead to the drinks. "Kira's in love with Nicolette, and I'm like the only person Kira can count on, so that's why I want everything to be perfect for her birthday." He turned to Lelouch. "You know I had a bloody hard time organising this thing? Those idiots I hired to help tried to back out on me... you know how tiring it is? Especially since it's not for yourself that you're organising for?"

At his words, Lelouch remembered. Remembered all the things he'd done when he'd gotten his Geass, how he'd set up the Black Knights and planned missions for them, how he'd worked all his plans into a grand master plan...

"Yeah," he replied. "I know."

Andrew smiled. "Thanks, Luke," he said. "By the way," he turned back to the drinks, taking a second look. "Has anyone ever told you that you look like emperor Lelouch?"


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Happy Birthday, Nicolette

Lelouch froze. "I...look like emperor Lelouch?" he said. "Nonsense. Since when-"

"No, really, you do!" Andrew dug out his cell phone and thumbed through it, showing Lelouch a picture of himself, before his death. "I dunno why I never realised it before," he continued. "But think about it, if you dyed your hair black, you two'd be identical!"

"Except the eyes," Lelouch said carefully. "He's got different coloured eyes than I have."

"Really?" Andrew studied the picture closely. "Yeah, you're right. His are purple and yours are..." He looked at Lelouch. "Yellow."

"Amber!" Lelouch snapped. "Not _yellow. _Yellow eyes? That's mean you're suffering from thiamine deficiency or something."

"Ok, fine," Andrew said defensively. "No need to get so sensitive about it. Geesh." He tucked his cell phone back into his pocket and continued looking at the drinks.

Lelouch glared at him for a while, then came to a sudden realisation. "Why do you have a picture of emperor Lelouch in your cell phone?"

"Hm?" Andrew turned to look. "Something that Nina said... said you look like the emperor."

"Oh. Right," Lelouch said, not convinced at all.

...

"Was that the last item on the list?"

"Yes, it was."

"Did we decide on anything before that?"

"No, we didn't."

"How many times have we been through this list?"

"Five."

"Wanna go for a sixth round?"

"No."

"Andrew's not gonna like this."

"No, he isn't."

"Hey you two! Got Nicolette's present yet?"

"Er..."

"You didn't, did you?"

Swear words from four different languages could be heard within a hundred metre radius.

...

Monday had the assistant dean announce to the school that Mr Harker had been murdered, and that investigations into his death were ongoing. A new dean would be chosen soon, and in the meantime, the assistant dean would be the acting head of the school.

Tuesday morning came the news that Empress Nunnally and her entourage had arrived in Singapore, and would be beginning negotiations with the terrorist leadership in Singapore's Temasek Hall at four in the evening, five pm Japan time.

Lelouch was trying desperately to reassure himself that the negotiations had absolutely nothing to do with him, since he was 'Luke Overton' now, a perfectly normal student studying in Ashford International School, getting ready to celebrate his classmate's birthday in evening, right at the same time the negotiations were taking place...

_No no no! Stop thinking about the negotiations! _Lelouch thought furiously. _Think of Nicolette's birthday, and whether the plan I gave to Kira's gonna work! _Jumping onto this train of thought before it pulled out of the station, he glanced sideways to Kira, and was not at all amazed to see him looking all nervous.

Taking a quick check on Mr Peters, to make sure his back was still facing the class, Lelouch leaned over and whispered to Kira, "What're _you _looking so nervous for?"

Kira looked at Peters' back then darted his eyes to Lelouch. "Why do you think?" he hissed. "Too many variables, Luke. A lot of things could go wrong tonight."

"What?" Lelouch hissed. "Come on, man, I know that you're gonna-"

"Whisper, whisper, whisper," Peters' voice cut their conversation short. "Only relevant to Humour in Language if someone catches you doing it, like I do now." Kira and Lelouch looked up at him guiltily. "So now shut up and pay attention to my lesson!"

...

"Great, now those two idiots have detention," Nicolette said after school. She, CC and Andrew had headed off after class let out, to look over any last minute contingency plans for her 'surprise' party.

"But isn't it a little harsh?" CC put in. "Two hours detention for talking in class... Does Peters normally do that?"

"No, he doesn't," Nicolette said. "Now that you say it... it's like he changed over the weekend. I wonder what happened."

"Mm, true, true," CC agreed. "What d'you think, Andrew?"

Andrew jumped upon hearing his name. "Weeelll... I'm not very sure," he said. "He does seem to have changed, but at least his lessons are still pretty good." He looked at his watch. "Sorry, the library guys need me, so I gotta go..." he lamely excused himself from the girls' presence, too nervous to be around them.

"What the...?" Nicolette glared angrily at Andrew's receding back. "Library? Hah! It's just an excuse that he doesn't want to be near us, that's all." She turned to CC. "What now, Charlotte?"

CC shrugged. "Listen, Nic... Andrew's just worried about the party later. So if he seems a little distant now, it's so that everything will be perfect later, okay?"

"Really?" Nicolette replied sarcastically. "Since when has he been so devoted to anything?"

CC blinked. "He hasn't?" she asked. "Strange. I kinda thought that he'd be this organized at everything he did."

"Oh, yeah, you wouldn't know," Nicolette said. "Well, anyway, Andrew only goes full force about something only if he really, really wants to do it... Either that or if he believes that it'll make him happy."

"Aah," CC said. "I get it."

"What?" Nicolette turned to her. "What? What's Andrew planning? How much do you know?"

CC smiled, not enigmatically, but in a happy way that nonetheless made it evident that she was keeping a secret. "Can't say, Nic."

"C'mon, tell me!" Nicolette dashed to her and tried to catch her arm.

"Can't!" CC darted away, still smiling.

"Tell!"

"No!"

They both ran, one chasing the other, up the knoll that fronted the main school building, unaware that they were being watched.

...

"Okay, you ready?" CC's hand was covering Nicolette's eyes, so she had to rely on the sound of her voice to guide her.

"Come on, Charlotte, why all the secrecy?" Nicolette giggled. "I'm ready, I'm ready. You can take your hand away."

CC did so, and what Nicolette saw took her breath away.

She was in a long art gallery, the walls smooth and soothing to the eye, works of art hung at regular intervals on the walls, and softly lit by light spots on the floor and ceiling. She walked over to the closest one-it looked terribly familiar...

"This is one of mine!" she exclaimed, and looked around her. "These are _all _mine!" She whirled around at them. "How did-? Where-?" They all pointed towards Andrew, who was now carrying a cake, on which he'd painstakingly arranged twenty candles around the circumference.

He smiled and said, "Happy Birthday, Nicolette."

...

Later, when the party was dying down, CC joined Lelouch behind the rented warehouse with a drink. "Hey, 'Luke'," she said, sitting down beside him "Penny for your thoughts?"

"They're worth a hell more than that," Lelouch replied. He looked at his watch, then up at the night sky. "By now, the negotiations should be over. I wonder what the outcome is." He looked back at CC.

"Do you think I'm thinking too much about this?" he asked. "I mean, I'm an ordinary schoolboy now. I shouldn't really care about Nunnally anymore, but... I _am _her older brother."

CC shook her head sadly. "Lelouch," she said. "You're not Lelouch anymore. You're Luke Overton. You don't need to care-"

"I know!" Lelouch snapped. "I know I shouldn't be feeling concerned about this, but I just can't help it! To me, she's still the little sister I knew from back then, whom I'd always love and protect and I don't-"

"Hey you two," came Andrew's voice. Lelouch and CC jumped, and whirled around to face him, _Just how long has he been standing here? _Lelouch thought anxiously. Andrew didn't seem to have heard anything untoward though; he was still smiling serenely as he always was.

"You two'd better clear out, Kira needs this space, remember?" He looked back into the warehouse-turned-art gallery. "Though, personally, I don't think it's a good idea to confess to her on her birthday, especially since you're not aware of her feelings... Come on, let's go." He waved them back in.

"Okay you two!" Andrew fairly shouted. "The main event has come! Kira will explain everything to you, Nicolette, so please follow him. The rest of us will wait in here for the outcome."

The three of them registered a look of amused surprise on Nicolette's face before Kira took hold of her hand and led her outside. All three watched their exit closely, and once the warehouse door had closed, they sprung into activity, clearing up the mess and getting everything ready for a quick departure or another lengthy celebration.

But as they were clearing up, Andrew's cell phone sounded an SMS alert tone. Frowning, he opened and read it, and gave a violent exclamation.

"What? What happened?" Lelouch hurried over. Andrew handed him the cell phone. "International News message alert," he said. "You should read it."

Lelouch took the cell phone and was rooted with shock to the spot.

"What happened?" CC almost ran over to read the message. "No way..." she whispered.

TERRORISTS SURROUND TEMASEK HALL, it read. EMPRESS NUNNALLY AND ENTOURAGE TAKEN HOSTAGE.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: The Glass of Life is Brittle

Andrew was the one who broke the stunned silence.

"Well, this is sure to have repercussions," he said. "Okay, I know you guys are Britannian, so it's probaly a bad shock to you two, but that seemed a tad-Agh!" He cried out in pain as Lelouch swung a fist into his face.

"The fuck was that for?!" Andrew shouted, rubbing his jaw. "What did I do?"

Lelouch advanced on Andrew angrily. "Do not think I take Empress Nunnally's kidnapping lightly," he seethed. "The empress-"

"That still doesn't give you a reason to beat me!" Andrew yelled. "You think your empress is so great, think of the person standing in front of you!" Right after he said it, Andrew's face turned white, as though he'd said something he shouldn't have, and he turned and ran for the open doorway, slamming the door hard behind him.

Lelouch turned to CC. "Looks like he's got secrets to keep too," he said. "Son of the founder of ASEAN..."

CC glared at him. "You really shouldn't have flared up like that." Lelouch glared back at her. "I can't help it I still have a protective-" He broke off as a terrible scream sounded from outside.

"Don't tell me Kira tried-" CC began, as they rushed for the back door.

"No, he didn't," Lelouch said. "That wasn't a girl's scream. Something's happened to Kira." He wrenched the door open, and saw a heart-stopping sight.

Kira was on the ground, his eyes wide with shock, his mouth working frantically as he struggled to breathe, while blood poured from a huge gash in his throat.

An X-shaped gash.

...

Andrew ran through the dark streets of Tokyo, raging at himself. _Stupid! _He thought. _Stupid, stupid, stupid, bloody brainless- _The rest of his thoughts degraded into various profanities with which he used to berate himself. _You were _told_ not to tell anyone! Time and time and time again-_

He turned a corner and ran headlong into someone. "Gah!" he gasped as his breath was knocked out from him. "Sorry!" he said automatically. "Sorry, sorry..." he looked up to see just who he was apologising to. It was a plump, middle-aged, somewhat balding man.

"Mr Peters!" Andrew exclaimed. "What're you doing here?"

Mr Peters looked at him, and Andrew thought he could see an expression of sadness on his face. "I can't say, Andrew," he said. "And you're not sorry. I am."

Andrew managed a bewildered "Huh?" before Peters Tasered him.

...

In the hospital, Lelouch and CC waited anxiously in the corridor for news about Kira. CC was huddled in a chair, and Lelouch had taken to pacing nervously up and down.

"Nicolette did this," Lelouch said. "Crazy as it sounds, she did it, and I don't know why. I thought she was okay now! How could she-" He was interrupted as the doctor came out of the emergency room.

"How is he? Can we see him?" CC asked, getting off her chair. The doctor simply nodded.

"He's stabilised, for the moment," he said. "Do you know what happened to him? How come he sustained such a wound?"

Both Lelouch and CC shook their heads. The doctor frowned. "Strange, though. It's almost identical to those slashed throat cases a few years back."

"Almost?" Lelouch asked. "Why?"

"Because those victims ended up dead, that's why." the doctor replied. "Whoever did this to him either wasn't out to kill him, or they missed."

"Can we see him?" CC asked again.

"He's not conscious at the moment," the doctor said, "But sure, he's well enough to receive visitors. Just don't over-excite him. He did get his throat slit open, after all. Room 702."

They fairly ran to the elevator and almost frantically jabbed the button for the seventh floor. "Come on, come on..." Lelouch muttered. "We need to know."

When the elevator finally opened on the seventh floor, they sprinted out again, to room 702, and burst inside. Kira was there, lying on the single cot, a clean white bandage around his throat. The steady, rhythmic beeping of the heartbeat monitor reassured them that he was all right.

"How long do you think he'll be out?" CC said. "Think we should try and wake him?"

Lelouch smiled. "No need," he said, "He's awake."

Sure enough, he was. Kira gave a weak smile and beckoned them over. "Hi," he croaked.

"Kira, what happened?" CC came round to his bedside, though she had a very good idea of just what had happened. "We were inside, waiting for you to come back with Nicolette..."

Kira smiled. "I was unlucky," he said. "So, the two of you, come here. You'll need all the luck you can get."

"Huh?" CC pulled Lelouch over. "Luck? What do you mean?"

"It's coming true. It's all coming true," Kira rambled. "Andrew knows. He heard Nicolette say so. Now you two, come here before I pass out again..."

Lelouch quickly positioned himself before Kira, who pulled at CC's sleeve, making her move into view as well.

"Get... lucky," he whispered, and his eyes lit up slowly, a shape issuing from each. Once they left his eyes, the shapes joined to become an all-too-familiar red sigil.

The shock of what they'd seen rooted Lelouch and CC to the spot, and Kira smiled, and closed his eyes.

"We've got to get out of here," CC said, pushing herself away from Kira's cot. "He's got a Geass, Lelouch. How? I never-"

"You're asking _me_ how come he has a Geass?" Lelouch asked incredulously, following her out. "I think you should be the one-" His words were cut off as he was thrown to the floor by an impact on the side of the hospital building, accompanied by a splintering crash which sent dust and glass shards flying everywhere.

"Kira!" CC gasped. She rammed the ward's door open, and was greeted by a gigantic, five-fingered, armoured gauntlet, connected to a similarly armoured torso with an elongated, four 'eyed' head.

"Knightmare!" she yelled, for Lelouch's benefit. "Stay clear!" She didn't really have to be concerned; the knightmare was more focused on getting Kira, cot and all, out of the hole it'd made.

"Kira!" CC screamed impotently at the knightmare, as it unfurled the distinctive wings of a float unit, and flew away.

Lelouch ran up beside her. "They took Kira? Whatever for?" He looked desperately around the ward, then dashed to the jagged hole in the hospital wall. Already, the knightmare was indistinguishable from the hundreds of stars that dotted the night sky.

Then his cell phone rang an SMS alert, and he picked it up.

_Everything will be made clear once you come to ASEAN. Come and save your friends, Luke Overton. Your father will be waiting._

_Come and save your sister, Lelouch Lamperouge._


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Shatterpoint

It was four-fifty in the afternoon, and Suzaku could feel the sweltering heat of Singapore despite the environmental controls Lloyd had built into his suit. Looking at the security arrayed around the Temasek Hall, he began to suspect that not all of his perspiration came from the heat. He was nervous, and rightly so.

First of all, there were four Singaporean knightmares, what they called Ultimen, arranged neatly at all roads leading towards (and away from) the Hall. Secondly, he could see snipers on the roof of the building, and rifle-toting sentries at the building's entrance itself. Third, Nunnally's own security detail was lightly armed, carrying only a pistol each.

And fourth, as a gesture of goodwill, Nunnally had left _all _the knightmares they'd brought back at the airbase, so, Suzaku was the only one who was capable of taking care of her.

So now, with these concerns running through his mind, Suzaku followed closely behind Nunally as she remote-controlled her wheelchair (no longer pink but black; she'd hardened over the two years she'd spent as Empress) to greet the leader of the terrorist delegation, who bowed ever so slightly as she approached.

"Your Majesty," he said. "I'm Ky Lee, spokesperson for the Singapore Independence Group." Lee wasn't very tall, about the same size as Suzaku, and clearly an academic, not a fighter. Nunnally had nothing to fear from him.

The same could not be said for the bodyguards who followed behind him. They wore EU-made submachine guns on their belts, and looked as though they were representing the Singapore Bodybuilders' Association. Still, Suzaku was hoping that being so heavily-muscled, those guys weren't as agile as he was.

"Pleas, your Majesty, this way," said Lee, leading the way to the lift lobby. He, Nunnally, Suzaku, and one of his muscular bodyguards squeezed into the elevator, leaving the other one to climb the stairs.

He was there when they reached the fourth floor. Suzaku's mask didn't give away any expression but he was shocked that the guard could climb four stories in about five seconds. The guard held open the door to the conference room for them, and Nunnally smiled graciously at him for doing so.

A smile that died as quickly as Lee did, for the moment he stepped into the room, shots rang out, and Suzaku sprang into action, grabbing Nunnally and kicking the door open again, intending to sprint out.

At least, that's what he tried to do, but he felt both an electric shock and a needle jabbing into his back, and everything went dark.

...

Lelouch was throwing things into a duffel bag with a vengeance as CC watched impassively.

"You do know that this is an obvious trap, right?" she said. "You don't have anyone to back you up anymore. You are walking right into your enemy's arms."

"I know that, dammit," Lelouch growled. "They know who I am, and by that message, I surmise that they didn't take just Kira. We've got to assume that they took at least Andrew as well. Nicolette, I'm not so sure."

"But still-"

"Do you have a better plan then?" Lelouch turned on her. "If you have any suggestions as to how to get the better of them, I'd hear them with my ears wide open."

CC shrugged. "No real ideas, but Nina did get the orange juice test results back from Dr Kell. It was laced with high-grade aphrodisiac. And a lot of it at that."

Lelouch was about to snap at her for bringing up a totally unrelated matter until he wrapped his brain around her statement. "What kind of aphrodisiac?" he said. "We might be able to trace its source."

CC smiled. "That's what I'm talking about," she said. "Kell analysed the stuff as Crocin-T141. I don't think you can get that commercially."

"Maybe, maybe not," Lelouch said, firing up Nina's internet browser. "From what I know..." he trailed off, blinking in disbelief. "I don't. I don't know a thing about this." He ran a hurried search on BIGLOBE. "Crocin-T141..." he read. "Damn, it's an active ingredient in just about every aphrodisiac there is out there. Anything else to go on?"

"Um..." CC tried to remember. "There was some kind of plant extract."

"Crocin-T141 _is _a plant extract."

"No, no, something else," CC said. "Dammit, I don't remember... It was some weird name..."

Just then Nina came back from outside. "I leave the two of you alone for a while," she began, "And-"

"That's it!" CC exclaimed. "Ali! Tongkat Ali! Told you it was a weird name!"

"Then that marks it as a definite ASEAN product!" Lelouch said, ignoring Nina's furious glare at being interrupted. "We just need to search the shipping records..."

"What you're doing is completely illegal, you know that?" Nina said. CC grinned at her.

"Since when has Lelouch cared about doing things legally?" Hearing her remark, Lelouch smirked, and his smirk grew wider as he successfully hacked into Lifehealth Corporation's shipping records.

"Got it," he said. "Let's see... online transaction, shipped to..." He paused. "That's interesting." He tapped a few more keys, and frowned a few minutes later.

"Nina," he said. "Come here." Nina scowled at being ordered around like one of Lelouch's former Black Knights, but she went over anyway. "What?" she said. "What's up that you need me?"

"This," Lelouch pointed at the screen. "This is your uncle's bank account number.

"And this is Mr Peters' email address." They looked at each other, too stunned for words. Lelouch recovered first.

"This means one thing then: Peters and your uncle are somehow involved with the ASEAN terrorists. That's the only explanation that makes sense, though it's brought up a whole lot of other questions as well." He got up from the computer table. "We've got to get to ASEAN right away. But first, we've gotta search Andrew's room. Kira mentioned that he'd heard Nicolette predict all this or something."

"Let me guess," Nina sighed. "You'll need me to help you because, as one of the staff, I can draw out Andrew's room key, am I right?"

Lelouch smiled. "Brilliant as ever, Nina."


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13: Here be a Monster

Ky Lee's corpse had been cleared from the room almost as quickly as he had died. Nunnally was still speechless, shocked at the casual violence of it all.

"Sorry about that, Your Majesty," came a voice from behind her. "No, no, don't turn around," it added, as she attempted to do just that. "You _have _come to negotiate with me, after all. Let's see..." Nunnally could sense the speaker appraising her. "Black motorised wheelchair, huh? You try and maintain an air of independence, not wanting your opposites to think that they're dealing with a little seventeen year-old girl. Tut, tut. What changed you so, Nunnally?"

"You will address me as 'Your Majesty'," Nunnally said icily. "How may _I_ address _you_? You haven't even said who you are, yet you come in and start judging my appearances out of nowhere?"

"Of course," the unknown speaker continued. "You're wearing the dress you always wear to meet with negotiating parties, meaning to say that you want us to think that we're nothing out of the ordinary for you. You've chosen to wear your glasses, and so give us the impression that you're working rather hard, and you're not a little girl anymore, but really," he sighed. "It pains your father to see you like this, my dear."

...

A Britannian-made, albeit heavily modified, SSH-53 helicopter flew low over the grounds surrounding Ashford International, with CC at the controls. She flew the poor thing as fast as she could, going lower than needed to avoid both Japanese and Singaporean radar.

In the passenger compartment, Nina and Lelouch were trying to make some sense out of Nicolette's so-called 'prophecy'

"It's too ambiguous," Nina sighed. "Sorry, but these terms could mean anything, and the only person whom I know who could decode these things is Mr Peters, and he's disappeared, too."

"He's in on this as well, I'm sure of it," Lelouch said. "But I don't think he's involved in this prophecy... I can't find anything that might link to him."

"But can we put any kind of significance in any of the other terms?" Nina said, looking through the prophecy again. "'Son of darkness', 'Son of terror...' It might be talking about you, but which one?"

"Frankly, I'm more concerned with-" Lelouch began, but was cut off by CC's voice over the intercom.

"_We've got company. Two F-11 fighters, closing fast."_

...

JADF First Lieutenant Takeshi Koiwai screamed his F-11 in pursuit of the unidentified helicopter. It had appeared suddenly, and vanished again, on and off the radar-that suggested that either it was stealth, or it was trying very hard to avoid being detected. Either way, he was going to take it down.

He reached for his COM stud and hailed the helicopter. "Unidentified aircraft, you flying too low," he said. "Please identify yourself and raise altitude." No reply came. "Unidentified aircraft, please respond." To show that he was serious, Koiwai released the weapon locks on his missiles.

...

"They've got weapons lock," CC announced, no hint of fear in her voice. Lelouch glared at the radar display.

"Do we have _any _kind of defensive weaponry on board?" he asked. CC shook her head.

"Nope," she said, pushing the helicopter even faster. Lelouch's eyes widened a little upon seeing the speedometer needle twitch toward the red zone. "Not even flares or chaff. If they fire at us, we're dead."

"Wonderful," Lelouch said sarcastically. He took a deep breath and reached for the COM button. "Gotta try and lie our way out of this."

...

Koiwai's finger closed on the trigger even as he prepared to hail the heli again. "Unidentified aircraft-" he began, but another signal cut through the first.

"_Tora One and Tora Two, this is base command," _Koiwai's radio said. _"Break off pursuit. I repeat, break off pursuit. Details will be explained once you touch down. Acknowledge at once, over."_

Koiwai scowled and took his hand away fro the trigger, and put the safeties back on again. "Acknowledged, base command," he said ruefully. "Breaking off pursuit."

...

Lelouch breathed a huge sigh of relief. "For a second there, I thought it wasn't going to work." He willed his heart to slow down as he watched the two fighters peel off on the radar display. "Full speed ahead to Singapore, then. We're not even out of Tokyo airspace yet."

CC nodded, but said, "I just hope the next time fighters come up on us, your story of 'important missions' will hold out."

_..._

Nunnally whirled around, in spite of her being told not to. Who was this person, claiming to be her father? Her father was dead, surely? Killed by her own brother, who in turn, orchestrated his own death? She had to know.

So she turned, fully expecting to see tall, imposing, old but still powerful man she had called her father, but she didn't. Whoever it was, it definitely was not anyone she had in mind.

He was dressed in red, even his gloves and the shoes on his feet. The only exception was his crisp white shirt, over which he wore a red coat. He wore a mask, of course, a matching red mask, that bore no marks upon its shiny and pristine surface.

"I suppose you would like to know who I am?" he said. "I am the Leader, Nunnally. The one whom you are to negotiate with. Only now there doesn't seem like much to negotiate." He flung out his arms at the room. "Recognise my state's independence, and I will set you free."

Nunnally glared at him, with the same expression in her eyes as when she had glared at her brother on the Damocles. "Who are you to think I will continue my negotiations with you after all this has happened?"

The Leader said nothing, but Nunnally could sense he was smiling behind his mask. He reached up slowly, to the chin of his mask. He began to pull it away, slowly.

"Who am I, Nunnally?" he said. He took off the mask completely. "You know me, Nunnally. I may have a different body now, but still..." He turned his gaze to her, and Nunnally knew.

Behind those eyes were another set of eyes, deep blue, like the ocean's depths, and one could drown in them. Those were the eyes of a leader, a ruler, a father, a killer.

_They were the eyes of Charles zi Britannia._


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14: Reaping the Whirlwind

CC landed the helicopter right in front of the Temasek Hall building, having had an uneventful journey since their encounter with the two F-11 fighters over Japanese airspace. As though they'd been expecting them, two Ultimen rolled forward slowly on their landskimmers, weapons levelled at the heli.

"I am expected," Lelouch said to the closer Ultiman. "My name is Luke Overton. I don't know why, but I was told to come here."

"Why?" asked the Ultiman pilot, through the external speakers. "You're only a student. Why would you be expected?"

"I don't know!" Lelouch yelled in frustration. "I don't-" He broke off as the two Ultimen suddenly moved to the sides, to make way for a black-clad , capped, and dark-glasses wearing woman to stride up to him. Lelouch furrowed his brow. _No, not old enough to be called a woman, _he thought. _She can't be more than my age._

Standing before him, it was easy to see that the girl was well armed and armoured; two pistols hung from holsters on her belt, and she had what looked like an SMG strapped to the back of her bulletproof vest. Numerous pouches were attached to the aforementioned vest, no doubt full of magazines.

Without saying a word, the girl beckoned for Lelouch, CC, and Nina to follow. They did, with Lelouch naturally taking the lead. He allowed himself a slight feeling of relief, for the girl had shown no sign of noticing the pistol that _he'd _concealed under his Ashford uniform jacket.

He felt a twinge of unease, however, when he saw a strand of copper-coloured hair escape the girl's cap.

...

Nunnally had been blind ever since the attack on the Imperial Palace, so long ago, yet she never once forgot what her father's eyes looked like. They were completely devoid of any warmth, love, or emotion, replaced instead with cold logic and a burning hate for anything that didn't fit in with his plans.

Now, as she looked upon those eyes, in the face of the man who called himself 'The Leader', she felt like a little girl again, terribly afraid of the gaze of the man who had given her life. She was frozen to her wheelchair in shock and fear, all the more so for knowing that Charles zi Britannia literally vanished shortly before Lelouch took the throne.

The Leader (or was it Charles?) smiled at her, a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Ah, Nunnally," he said. "Why are you so afraid?"

"I-" it took a moment for Nunnally to find her voice again. "First of all, you should be dead."

"Really? Just because I vanished?" There was a knock on the door, clearly the knock of someone who expected to be let in. Charles-in-The-Leader's-body crossed the room and pulled open the door, standing to one side to let those outside in.

Whoever it was, it wasn't who Nunnally was expecting; in came a balding, middle-aged man, pushing an occupied hospital bed, a tall Singaporean boy, just beginning to reach adulthood, with a rifle held to his back, and finally, the holder of the rifle, a slight but definitely muscled, green-uniformed soldier with an unconscious girl slung over his shoulder.

The soldier proceeded to dump the girl unceremoniously onto the floor, then retreated to the corner. The middle-aged man pushed the hospital bed to one side, then picked up the girl and placed her gently on the floor next to the bed. The Singaporean managed to look frightened and defiant at the same time.

_Why are they holding one of their own captive? _Nunnally wondered. The Leader's next words answered the question for her.

"Andrew Li," he said. Nunnally recalled with a start where she'd heard that name before: He was Jasper Li's, the founder of ASEAN's, son. "Don't be so rude to Empress Nunnally. She is the one who will grant Singapore's independence, after all."

"Your Majesty," Andrew said, his voice resolute. "I never wanted it to become like this. I never-"

"You never wanted independence for your homeland at all!" The Leader roared at him. "You, the son of Jasper Li, content to let your home suffer under Jakarta, and _you did nothing! _No, you did worse than nothing, you ran away."

"What else could I do?!" Andrew shot back. He turned to Nunnally for help. "Your Majesty, there was nothing I could do that wouldn't result in bloodshed." His look turned pleading. "Your Majesty, I counted on your country to help. I _needed _your country to help, and to do that I knew I could not spill any blood. Not after seeing how you changed Britannia."

"No," The Leader snarled. "You were too weak to attempt anything, so you ran away. You ran and left them all to suffer! You-"

"He did not," Nunnally said, interrupting the two of them. "He was right in not using violence to settle things. Look at the situation now." She gestured at the room. "Do you think I would grant your country independence now, after what I've been put through?" She shook her head. "No, _Leader,_" she said. "Singapore will not gain independence under you."

"'Leader', is it?" The Leader said. "Is that how you will acknowledge me now? Very well." He turned to the soldier. "Kill Andrew Li."

The soldier saluted, cocked his weapon, took aim, and fired.

...

The sound of a gunshot echoed through the corridor as Lelouch, CC, Nina, and the girl stepped out of the elevator. Quick as a flash, the girl drew one of her pistols, jerked her head at one of the burly guards lining the corridor, and sprinted off toward the sound. Lelouch made to pull out his own pistol, but the guard was quick for his size, too quick, and yanked the pistol out of his band, breaking his index finger. Lelouch howled in pain, but the guard forced the three of them down the corridor at gunpoint, in the same direction the girl had went.

When they reached the conference room, they saw a bewildering sight. Against one wall were Kira's hospital bed, a soldier, and Mr Peters. Both had their hands up as Andrew was pointing a Singaporean-made SAR-15 at them.

Nunnally was sitting in her wheelchair, glaring defiantly at the girl aiming the pistol at her forehead, even as the girl was pointing another pistol at a Suzaku, conscious now. He'd not only wrestled the rifle away from the soldier and thrown it to Andrew, he'd also drawn his own pistol and had it aimed at The Leader.

And The Leader was unarmed, but that didn't stop him from speaking. "So, you're here at last," he said. "_Lelouch Lamperouge._" Lelouch saw Nunally's face go completely white. Slowly, very slowly and deliberately, The Leader turned to face Lelouch.

Lelouch saw Charles' eyes first, but he saw the rest of The Leader's face second, and the shock of recognition surged through him like the current from an electric chair. His jaw dropped, but no sound came out. Nina however, was still in control of her voice, and she shrieked:

"_UNCLE VICTOR?!"_


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15: The Demon King Realized

Things happened very fast after that.

The man who had Victor Einstein's body, Charles zi Britannia's mind, and called himself 'The Leader' ducked and ran, scrambling for the exit. The burly bodyguard, smart as well as muscular, covered him, firing his pistol while escaping. Andrew spun around and fired, but it was too late; his bullets crumpled against the clearly not-wooden door as it closed.

That left the soldier he had been covering free to lunge at him, but Peters jumped on the soldier, pinning him to the ground and effectively subduing him.

With The Leader gone, Suzaku and CC attacked The Leader's bodyguard, each of them grabbing one of her weapons and forcing them away. The fight was quickly over once Nina grabbed the girl's SMG. Realising that she was disarmed, the girl gave up, going limp in Suzaku's and CC's hands and dropping her pistols to the floor.

Once the situation had calmed down somewhat, Nunnally took charge of the situation. "Zero," she said, "Restrain that soldier," she indicated the soldier pinned down by Peters. She turned to Andrew. "Andrew, was it?" she asked. "Please put the gun down and restrain this girl. Remove her cap and dark glasses, I want to see who she is. Nina," Nunnally turned to her former schoolmate, her face still severe.

Then her expression relaxed into a soft smile. "I don't know what you're doing here, but it's good to see you, Nina." She directed her gaze to Lelouch and CC. "You two," she said, her voice becoming severe once more, "Explain yourselves. Especially you," she added turning to Lelouch. "If what The Leader said is true, then..." she let her voice trail off.

Lelouch was at a loss for words, until he heard Nina's gasp. He turned to face her, saw her staring in shock, and followed her gaze. What he saw shocked him such that his brain, still recovering from The Leader, threatened to shut down.

Andrew had taken off the girl's cap and dark glasses. She had long, copper-coloured hair. She had light green eyes. She had been dead for longer than Lelouch had.

_And yet she was alive._

...

The Leader stalked down the corridor of Temasek hall, drawing on the intelligences of both Charles zi Britannia and Victor Frank Einstein to figure out a solution to the current problem.

_Technically, there is _no _problem, _he thought.. _I could just order them to storm the room and kill everyone inside. But... _He thought hard, and eventually decided on a solution. He beckoned the burly bodyguard over.

"Have that room locked down," he said. "I want guards posted outside, above and below the room. If anyone but Empress Nunnally comes out of there, they are to shoot on sight. Go." The guard left him and hurried away to carry out his orders.

The Leader walked on, planning his next move.

...

"Luk- Lelouch, Nicolette's coming round," Peters said, back in the conference room. While everyone had been shocked at the revelations of Lelouch's and Shirley's resurrection, there were definitely more pressing matters to attend to. Everyone had something to do; Peters and CC were guarding Kira, Nicolette, Shirley, and the soldier, Gabriel. Lelouch, Nina, and Andrew were figuring out a way to get out of the Temasek Hall alive, Suzaku was guarding the door, and Nunnally was tending to the minor wounds that they all had sustained, especially Lelouch's broken finger.

Nina had, with Andrew's help, hacked into the blueprints of the building, and Andrew was pointing out corridors and choke points where, if it were up to him, he would place guards. Lelouch was rapidly and mentally constructing plans and backup plans, each one just as good as the last. It seemed as though his ability to think and rationalise at the same time had come back to him.

When they heard that Nicolette was regaining consciousness, they all stopped what they were doing and pointed weapons in her general direction. Based on what she had done to Kira, Lelouch had classified her as 'dangerous' and that anyone could shoot her, but not kill her.

The first thin Nicolette did when she woke up was to wince and look around groggily. "Why is everyone pointing guns at me?" she slurred. "Where am I?" She looked around at everyone. "The Empress is _here_?! What's going on?"

"Long story," Peters said. Even though he was part of The Leader's inner circle, he wasn't privy to his agenda, and he certainly didn't know why Nicolette went berserk. He had a theory, though, but he kept that to himself since nobody had asked.

"Nicolette," Nunnally said. "I need you to stay calm. You've been kidnapped, as have the rest of us. Some very violent things might happen, so I need you to listen to and obey any order that Zero or Lel- Luke gives you, do you understand?" Nicolette nodded fervently.

"Erm... Your Majesty, what I don't understand..." Nicolette began, "W-what I don't understand, is why was I kidnapped? I mean, I'm not special or anything... my family isn't that well to do."

Nunnally smiled understandingly. "I'm not sure either, Nicolette," she said, "But we'll get you out of here all the same." She turned away, pushing herself to where Nina, Andrew, and Lelouch sat huddled around Nina's notebook.

_Wow. Even an _Empress _is concerned about me, _Nicolette thought. _Wait, didn't she say she was kidnapped as well? That means... it's _NOT _me she's concerned about, it's herself!_

_That's right, _said another, unpleasantly familiar voice inside Nicolette's head. _She isn't concerned about you. Nobody's concerned about you. Why did you mention your family, Nicolette? They as good as disowned you after they found out what you'd done. And speaking of which, look over there- _Involuntarily, Nicolette turned her head in the direction of Lelouch.

"Luke?" she whispered. "What's he got to do with this?"

_Everything, Nicolette. Luke Overton is not who he says he is. Look closer. Look harder. Do you see anything that looks familiar to you?_

Despite herself, Nicolette did look closer. "There isn't anything-" _Yes there is. _"Then why don't you tell me?" _You must realise it for yourself. _"He's just Luke Overton, professor Victor Einstein's illegitimate son." _No. _"He is." _Isn't. _"Is. That's all there is to him. He's nobody else other than Luke Overton!"

"What are you shouting about Luke for?" Peters asked. "You completely okay?"

Nicolette jumped; she hadn't realised she'd been shouting out loud. In fact, everyone in the room seemed to be looking in her direction.

"I'm fine," she lied. "Perfectly fine."

"Right," said Andrew sceptically, from the corner he was in. "We've just found a way out. Gather round, and I'll brief you all." He nodded to all of them. "You too, Gabriel. For the moment, we'll trust you, but any sign of treachery, and I will personally shoot you. Understood?"

"Yes, sir," Gabriel nodded. Andrew had reason not to trust him; he did try to shoot him after all. But on the other hand, Gabriel was a member of the Vanguard unit, an elite infantry unit that was trained to spearhead any assault.

As Andrew outlined the plan, which involved climbing out through the air ducts mostly, Nicolette _did _notice something.

_I thought Luke had amber-coloured eyes? _She thought. _How come now they're purple? _She looked closer. _Is his hair really brown... from up close, it looks dyed... and think about it, I think it _is _dyed. I can see black nearer to his scalp._

_Indeed you can. Now, think back to 2017, about a few days after the news of Prince Clovis's assassination..._

Nicolette tried to remember. And found out that she could. And when she strung the facts together, there she had it: the reason for her misfortunes, the person who caused her to carve crosses on her own and other people's throats... he was sitting right before her.

_I am you, Nicolette. I am your vengeance, anger, and hate at he who made you do this! Your vengeance against Lelouch Lamperouge, the resurrected Black Demon King!_


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Tipping Over

_December 12, 2018- One day after the detonation of the FLEIA bomb._

Andrew sat in the chair he'd made Kira vacate, hours ago. He was doing this for his friend's own good, for all the difference it made. Kira was positively _obsessed _over this girl lying unconscious in the hospital bed.

It was ridiculous, really. Kira was a Japanese- worse, an _Eleven- _but he had worshipped this girl's art ever since seeing it at Ashford Academy's school festival. He'd tried to find her, to tell her how he felt about her and her art, but the sudden appearance of Princess Euphemia at the school put a stop to all that.

Andrew sighed, wishing he could make Kira see the fruitlessness of his venture. The girl was a _Britannian, _for God's sake. There was absolutely no way in Heaven, Hell, or any place in between that she would hear him out. Even so, Kira refused to give up. He'd even rushed to the hospital first thing in the morning, to make sure she was safe from the FLEIA bomb.

_It's a wonder her parents don't forbid him from seeing their daughter, _Andrew thought. _Come to think of it, who, and more importantly, _where _are her parents? Neither of us have seen or heard of them since our first visit to the hospital._

_Whoever you are, _Andrew thought, _Please get better soon. My friend's practically killing himself over you. _He leaned back in his chair. _Kira... can't you see that it's a hopeless cause? Even if she does awaken, who's to say she'll even see you?_

Then, a voice.

"_Andrew"_

Andrew looked around wildly and found no one in the room. The voice went on, reciting something. It sounded almost like a poem.

_The vanished king plots his play_

_The darkest designs to ever see day._

_When the puppet rises against her master_

_The son of darkness aids the son of terror_

_Darkness and terror against the truth of the father_

_Dark love or dark daughter, one's death brought by terror_

_Darkness shall mourn, but darkness shall reign_

_When love or daughter_

_One of whom is slain._

No matter how he tried to shut it out, the voice kept on repeating, filling his mind with the words over and over and over again, getting louder and louder and ever louder still...

"Stop it!" Andrew screamed. "_Stop! Please stop it!_" And the voice stopped, all of a sudden, leaving him gasping in relief.

He picked himself off the floor _(when did I fall?_) and walked shakily to the girl's bedside. She was still unconscious.

Andrew turned and left the ward, and didn't look back, but the words the voice had said were firmly etched into his mind.

...

Lelouch's plan involved climbing out through the air ducts, that much was established for the ones who _could _climb through the air ducts. For the others, namely Kira and Nunnally, an alternative escape route had to be planned.

Which explained why Gabriel, Shirley and Suzaku (still in his Zero suit of course) were being used as bait. With the hook Lelouch had, he hoped to reel in a knightmare.

Shirley stood at one of the windows along Lelouch's escape route and punched in a code on her handheld radio. (Lelouch was forced to trust her that she wouldn't use it to betray them) Wwithin moments, two Ultimen came rolling by on their landspinners. Lelouch had already planned for this, as Andrew had told him it was Singapore Army doctrine to go anywhere and everywhere in twos. Simply put, it was the 'safety in numbers' principle.

Lelouch was, in fact, counting on this practice.

The two Ultimen came as close as possible to the window without actually touching it. The one in the lead stopped, its hatch opened, and the pilot dismounted. "Ma'am," he saluted to Shirley. "What happened?"

Gabriel answered for her. "We need back-up and medical aid. Also personnel to secure the place, _immediately. _No time to call for others, you're the ones who responded, so you'll be the ones to help us."

"What?" the pilot was incredulous. "I'm not-"

Gabriel tilted his head to Shirley. "She ordered it."

The Ultiman pilot scowled. "Fine, fine..." he manoeuvred his knightmare even closer to the window, climbed in, and hand signalled his partner to do likewise. He did so, quickly.

"Hey," said the pilot of the first Ultiman. "How did you manage to bring this Zero guy out with you?"

Gabriel was about to answer when the knightmares' radios crackled. _"All units, this is The Leader. The conference room has been compromised. Even my bodyguard has betrayed us. All personnel are to converge on the conference room and await further orders there. Leader out."_

"Oh, shit," Gabriel said. The two Ultiman pilots glared at him and ran for their knightmares.

But Suzaku was faster. He sprang up from his 'unconscious' state on the floor, grabbed one, used him as a support to kick the other in the head, and just as the first one collapsed from the Suzaku's sudden weight, Shirley drew her pistol and whacked him hard, in the back of the neck. The pilot went down and stayed down.

Suzaku nodded in satisfaction. "Okay," he said, "Bring them in, and move quickly. The Leader's raised the alarm."

Shirley nodded, her expression inscrutable behind her dark glasses. Gabriel slung his SAR-15 and policed the unconscious pilots' weapons and radios, giving a quick acknowledgement to The Leader's signal.

...

"All right," Lelouch said. "We've gotten the signal. Peters, get Kira up that air duct. Nunnally, you go up that one, with Andrew and Nina." He turned to Nicolette. "You go up that duct first, then pull me up, okay? They'll be here any minute now to blow a hole in the wall." Nicolette nodded, grabbed Peters' arms, and went up. Once in the air duct, she quickly turned round and extended her arms for Lelouch to hold.

Lelouch jumped up and grabbed her arms. "All right," he said, dangling about a third of a metre off the ground. "Pull me up!" Nicolette didn't.

"Nicolette?" Lelouch repeated. "Pull me up! Quick!" She shook her head.

"You did this to me," she whispered. "You made me carve crosses on the wall in school. You drove me to a killing spree. You put me into a coma." Her face twisted into an expression of intense hate.

"I lost everything because of you!" Nicolette shrieked. "My friends left me! My family! They disowned me! I didn't even die, not like you!" Tears poured from her eyes, whether of sadness or anger Lelouch couldn't say. "You caused all of this, Lelouch! Living or dead, all you do is make people suffer! _You deserve to die, and STAY DEAD!!!"_

She let go of his arms, and though he was only thirty centimetres from the floor, the fall felt like a very long way down.

He hit the ground, and could only watch as Nicolette closed the cover of the air duct.

"Lelouch?" came a voice from the radio he'd taken from Gabriel. "Is everyone clear?I've sent the signal, and I've got to open up the wall _now, _before the other knightmares get too close."

...

"I've got to open up the wall _now, _before the other knightmares get too close." Suzaku said. Lelouch didn't answer. "Lelouch?" Suzaku said again. "Respond! I need to open up the wall! Is everyone clear?" On the radar screen, four contacts, two from each side, drew closer...

"Yes," came Lelouch's voice. "Everyone's clear. Open fire."


	17. Chapter 17

**Okay, okay, okay! The seventeenth chapter! You'll notice that all my previous author's notes are gone, because I've been giving my chapters titles on my computer then just replacing the chapter. Maybe I shouldn't have done that.**

**Anyway, without further ado, I hereby present to you:**

* * *

Chapter 17: Violence is Zero

Suzaku took aim at the wall (not that it was difficult to aim at) and fired the Ultiman's machine gun, feeling weapon's recoil even through the Ultiman's recoil dampeners. As expected, the wall crumbled like cardboard, and with the wall and its built in thermal shielding down, Suzaku flicked on his infrared sensors and extended a hand in.

He frowned. The plan was to have CC and Lelouch come out of the air ducts first, and bring Nunnally and Kira down after them, but there seemed to be way too many heat signatures.

Suzaku looked closer to the display. One of the heat sigs actually seemed to be _fading..._

...

"Open fire." Lelouch gave the order and closed his eyes, waiting for Suzaku to blow out the wall and kill him with its debris. Thunder and smoke filled the room, and Lelouch felt a huge chunk of the wall smash into him, pinning him down to the floor.

_Wait a second, _he thought. _That came from the _ceiling.

Lelouch opened his eyes. Peters was on top of him, shielding him from the debris.

"Peters?!" Lelouch exclaimed. "Why did you-?"

"I'm sorry," Peters said. "All that I did... I did it all for my country... but The Leader's gone too far this time. Stop... him..."

"Peters?" Lelouch was alarmed to hear his voice so strained. "What're you- oh, shit." He saw what had happened now; Peters, whether by accident or plan, had timed it such that he shielded Lelouch just as Suzaku fired at the wall. A huge chunk of debris protruded from Peters' side, and dark blood oozed sickly out of the wound.

CC had already come out of her air duct and was holding Nunnally in her arms. "Broken ribs, crushed lung, massive internal haemorrhaging," she said tonelessly. "He's as good as dead already, Lelouch." She turned to Suzaku's Ultiman's outstretched hand, expressionless.

Lelouch, however, was still staring at Peters in shock. He was dying right before his eyes, and he was powerless to do anything to help... Then another, more pressing matter came back to his mind.

"Nicolette!" he snarled. "Andrew!" he yelled. "Get out here and boost me up!"

Andrew fairly dropped out of the air duct and scrambled over to Lelouch. "Lelouch, what happened? We were supposed to-"

"Yes, _Supposed to _is the word," he said. "Nicolette's gone and screwed up the plan. I need to go after her!"

"She _what?_"Andrew hissed. "Are you armed?" Lelouch nodded. Andrew knelt on one knee blow the air duct and motioned for Lelouch to use his leg to climb up.

"Good luck," Andrew said, once he was in the air duct. Lelouch smiled."I've got good luck already," he said.

"One of you come in here and retrieve Kira!" he added, and set off.

...

The Leader clenched his fists and set his tie. Now was the time to make sure everything went his way.

"Singapore Independence Fighters!" he broadcast from his knightmare. "The negotiations have failed. The Empress has escaped. We shall take her by force and _make _her declare our country independent!" A resounding _"Yes, sir!" _echoed from his speakers.

He put on his mask. "All units, move out! The Empress has escaped and two Ultimen have been compromised. Fight for our country's freedom!" His Ultimen charged up their landspinners, screamed away...

And got shot down from above.

"What-?" The Leader directed his Ultiman's head upward. "No! Loyalist reinforcements!"

As quickly as it had begun, The Leader's attack was failing. The local ASEAN Army garrison, alerted by Suzaku's signal, had descended on the Temasek Hall. Led by Gabriel and Suzaku, they were reacting to every attack The Leader threw at them with just the right amount of force to repel it.

"Sir!" came an anxious voice in The Leader's radio. "Long range radar is picking up more knightmares! I think they're the Britannians'!"

The Leader thought fast. "All units, get under cover of the trees! Switch off your IFF emitters and fire upwards, criss-cross pattern cougar!" The rebel Ultimen landspun to the tree cover and fired upwards, randomly crossing their arcs of fire. Since there were no friendly units to shoot out of the sky, some loyalist Ultimen were shot down, but most of them landed safely and pursued the rebels into the jungle.

The Leader cursed, spinning around to blast a loyalist in the head. Around him, knightmares dropped like flies, falling to either his machine gun or chain-bayonet. It seemed like nothing could stop him.

Until Suzaku charged forward in his stolen Ultiman,having transferred Nunnally to Shirley's Ultiman. He, too, drew his chain-bayonet and fought The Leader with it, having a section of Ultimen backing him up with covering fire.

"Damn Zero," The Leader cursed. Suzaku's Ultimen were doing a good job of pinning The Leader down while Suzaku himself went for close-in attacks. Left with no alternative, he retreated, firing almost wildly at Suzaku and his back-up Ultimen. He backed up his Ultiman at full speed, until it crashed through the Temasek Hall's outer wall. The Leader popped his access hatch and leapt out, into the corridor he'd busted open.

"He's going into the building-!" Suzaku got off a short burst over the radio before The Leader's now-unmanned Ultiman spun forward, still firing, and self-destructed.

...

Lelouch crawled through the air ducts as fast as he can, given his lousy stamina, and dropped out at the first open grill he found. Clearly Nicolette had emerged from the air duct here as well; there were dead guards all over the room, their throats ripped open.

Lelouch tried not to notice how ragged some of their wounds looked as he crept towards the room's open door, not daring to imagine how Nicolette would react, if she would try to tear out his throat as well.

His answer literally threw itself on him, as Nicolette hurtled in through the door, a Singaporean combat knife in her hand. Snarling inarticulately, she stabbed at his throat, but wildly, attacking in a blind rage. Lelouch felt his skin tear, but he hit back, clubbing her with his pistol.

She jumped off him and back-pedalled, knife held out by her side. She eyed his pistol warily, and jumped, feinting, for his chest. Lelouch dodged to the side, and Nicolette spun in mid-air, kicking him in the side and winding him. He fell to the floor, gasping for breath, and Nicolette fell on him again, and stabbed the knife down towards his neck. Lelouch instinctively thrust his arm out to shield himself from the blow and the knife sank into his arm, deep down.

A red haze of pain slashed through Lelouch, and he struck out desperately with his other arm, trying to beat Nicolete off him. She wrenched the knife out of his arm, tearing a substantial chunk of flesh out as well. Lelouch roared in pain, and all thoughts of trying to negotiate with Nicolette vanished. He gripped the pistol tightly in his uninjured hand, thrust it up and fired-

-and nothing. The pistol jammed, the result of Lelouch's own blood clogging the barrel.

Nicolette gave a feral smile, almost as though she took some triumph in his imminent death. She brought the knife down again-and gunshots rang out, and she spasmed in pain as bullets struck her, and exited from the front of her body. She collapsed on top of Lelouch, her blood streaming onto his school uniform.

"Lelouch!" Andrew's voice sounded from the doorway. He hurried in, his SAR-15 pointed down and away. "You okay?" He pushed Nicolette off him. CC, Shirley, and Gabriel followecd closely behind him, covering his blind spots.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Lelouch breathed. "What about her? She going to be okay?" He pointed to Nicolette, unwilling to say her name, unsure if there even was anything left of the girl in the mind of the crazed killer that just attacked him. Without asking, Shirley went over to her and began to try and dress her wounds. Lelouch regarded her. "Why's Shirley here? Wasn't she supposed to be with Nunnally and-"

"Aalready done," Andrew said. "As for _her_-" he looked toward Nicolette, "I don't think she'll live. I aimed for all the vital spots, and-" he was cut off as the building shuddered in response to a knightmare crashing through the outer wall. An explosion not long after told them that the knightmare had self-destructed, and pounding footsteps signalled the rapid approach of its pilot.

The Leader burst through the still-open doorway, an SMG in his hand. Instantly, everyone levelled their weapons at him, and for a second, both sides froze, waiting for the other to make the first move.

And The Leader spoke. "Shirley Fenette," he said clearly. "Control word _Unmasker._ Acknowledge."

"Unmasker?" Andrew repeated, still taking aim at The Leader. "What-"

"Unmasker, acknowledged." A familiar voice, gentle and friendly in any other context, said those words. Shirley rose form Nicolette's side.

"Shirley...?" Lelouch's grip on his pistol wavered. "What are you-" He lowered his pistol as she walked over to The Leader's side.

Behind his mask, The Leader grinned. "To be frank, Lelouch, I don't care for this country's independence. I just want to see you dead." He nodded to Shirley. "Kill him."

Lelouch turned his horrified gaze to her, and she... nodded.

* * *

**Ok, the reason I could only upload today and not last weekend as usual is because I was busy with work. Those of you who live in Singapore will know why. And now because all of us did so well for that bit of work, I'm off till Sunday! I guess I'll be uploading the rest of the story for these next few days.**

**Till the next time, see ya!**


	18. Chapter 18

**Ah, well. Might as well upload a chapter every time I switch on my computer. Only got a few left.**

**So, without further ado, I hereby present:**

* * *

Chapter 18: Beginning the End

Shirley drew one of her pistols with inhuman speed, leaping into the air well before Gabriel opened fire at her. Andrew fired at The Leader, but he dodged, and once again, ran out of the room. Andrew spun, tried to shoot Shirley- and couldn't, as CC had leapt after her, incredibly moving as fast as she did.

Shirley landed before Lelouch, raised her pistol, and CC crashed on top of her, wrestling her to the ground. She seemed to be chanting something, as though whatever it was she was saying could break The Leader's conditioning over her.

"Lelouch, move! You're in my line of fire!" Andrew shouted, his SAR-15 useless in this situation. Lelouch scrambled out of the way, ending up next to Gabriel, who was also trying to get a clear shot at Shirley.

"Gabriel, you go after The Leader, try to hold him at one location," Lelouch said, his mind automatically going into tactical mode. "He'll squirm out of any other situation otherwise." Gabriel nodded once and ran off, as though he wasn't going after a resurrected megalomaniac who used a country's independence struggle as a way to attract his son's attention.

Shirley threw CC off and fired-at the same time that Andrew fired at her. Her shot went wild, but Andrew's was dead on. Shirley crumpled to the floor, blood oozing from her chest.

"No!" Lelouch rushed over. "No, no, no no... Shirley!" He gathered her up in his arms. "Shirley?" he said. "Look at me, please."

Shirley looked. And her expression softened, and it was as though a veil had ben lifted from her eyes. "Lelou..?" she whispered. "Lelou?"

Lelouch nodded, desperate to keep her with him. "Yes, Shirley, it's me," he said. "Don't worry, I'm here."

She smiled sadly at him. "I'm dying again, aren't I?" she said. "It's okay, Lelouch. It's okay..." Her eyes closed. "No matter..." she whispered. "How many times I'm born again..."

Lelouch leaned closer to her, as her voice was getting fainter. "I will always..." her breath sighed against his face, and with that, he knew.

_He'd lost her again._

"Lelouch?" came a voice from the doorway. Gabriel's voice. "I've found The Leader." Lelouch looked up-to see Gabriel pointing his own SAR-15 at him. Lelouch's mind, already suffering from Shirley's second death, reached its limit and shut down.

...

Nunnally and Nina studied the situation being shown on the loyalist forces' tactical display screen inside their mobile command post, set up about a kilometere away form the fighting. Suzaku and Shirley had dropped them off here before most of the fighting began, and here they remained, waiting and watching as the battle unfolded.

"Your Majesty," said the ASEAN Army officer in charge of the assault, "We're about to send in our troops to storm the building. Is that all right with you? Some of your people are still inside, as I know it."

Nunnally shook her head. "Not yet," she said. "I haven't heard from Zero yet. Give him another five minutes. He'll get The Leader."

"Your Majesty, with respect, we've been waiting for fifteen minutes already," said the officer. Inwardly, Nunnally scowled, and thought fast of a way to save the situation.

"We don't know the exact strength of the enemy forces yet," she said. "Until we get any report from Zero, I will not let your men risk walking blindly into a trap." She turned to Nina. "Any luck?"

Nina nodded from where she was sitting with the Army codebreakers. "We're getting there," she said, and added, under her breath, "Even though this tech is _ancient._" One of the codebreakers removed his headset in triumph and announced, "Ma'am, we're through." Nina hurried over.

"Andrew, this is Nina," she said. "Can you hear me?" Silence. "Andrew?" she said again. "S- Zero? Shirley? Can any of you hear me?"

Hissing static greeted her initially, but then she heard, "This is Zero. I read you loud and clear." She and all the codebreakers emitted a collective sigh of relief.

"Zero, what's the size of the enemy strength?" Nina said. "Do you have a rough estimate?"

Static clouded Suzaku's reply: "Most knigh res defeat , but for th foot soldi rs, I'm not s re. Dism nting n to ch ck. Keep the rei cem nts in check or now."

Nunnally nodded. "All right then," she said. "Then we'll-"

"Another message," Nina said tersely, listening. "All right," she said, to whoever was speaking. "Okay. I got it." She put down the headset and walked over to Nunnally, her face grim.

"We've got a problem," she whispered, bending down to speak directly into Nunnally's ear. "That was Andrew just now. He says Uncle- The Leader's got strange powers, he's able to make people do things."

Nunnally went white, but she managed to nod all the same. "What's his advice?" she said. "Do we send in the reinforcements?"

Nina shook her head, and spoke even softer. "Lelouch fainted. Andrew's guessing it's just shock, but he'll keep us updated."

Nunnally nodded again, and noticed the Army officer giving her a concerned look. "Is something the matter?" she asked pointedly. "Continue holding the reinforcements back. Zero is on the case now."

The Army officer nodded, though Nunnally detected reluctance in the nod.

...

Andrew calmly pushed bullets into an empty magazine, both of which he'd taken off Gabriel's body. After he'd shot the crazed soldier, he'd restored some form of order in the room, beginning with moving all the bodies (dead and unconscious) to one side, dressing Nicolette's wounds (and cable-tying her as well) and taking anything useful off Gabriel. That included his ammunition, load-bearing vest, helmet, body armour, and Golan Cornershooter.

He mentally took stock of the situation. He and Charlotte (he still found it hard to call her CC) were the only two still of any use in the situation. Lelouch had fainted, Nicolette had turned traitor and had probably lost her mind, and Gabriel and Shirley were dead. If anyone were to track down The Leader, it would have to be him.

_That's because Charlotte's over there doing something very, very weird, _he thought, looking over. And indeed, CC was. She was kneeling at Gabriel's head and had her fingers on his temples, and Andrew could tell she was chanting something strange.

Andrew gave an inward shrug and pushed the last bullet in. Nodding in satisfaction, he slid it into his rifle and pulled back the bolt, chambering a bullet in. He flicked on the safety and looked over at CC; still chanting.

He was about to head out himself when he heard CC stand up behind him.

"It's too dangerous to go alone," CC said. Andrew turned around to see her rack the slide of a pistol. "Especially to go after The Leader. I'm coming with you."

Andrew cocked his head at the people they were leaving behind. "What about them?"

CC shrugged carelessly. "They're not in any immediate danger right now, are they? Besides, this is what The Leader wants us to do."

"You're using them as bait?"

"Sure. It's the sure-fire way to bring all this to an end."

* * *

**At the rate I'm going, I'll probably finish posting all the chapters by Saturday. To all the Shirley fans, sorry for killing her off again! But that was the only reasonable thing to do... poor Lelouch, he lost her three times *sob***

**Anyways, till the next time, see ya!**


	19. Chapter 19

**Ohh, man! the second-last chapter! the end of all things! Ok, maybe it's not so dramatic, but it IS gonna end with the next chapter.**

**So, without further ado, I hereby present:**

* * *

Chapter 19: Restoration

Lelouch was dreaming. He was sitting in a park, in the pouring rain, just sitting and waiting. People passed him by, but none of them stopped to even look at him.

_I'm not dead, _he thought. _I know I'm not. I now what death is like, and this isn't it._

Still he sat on the park bench, waiting. _Waiting for what? For whom? _He looked around, and he recognized no one.

"Lelou?" came a familiar voice from the left. He turned, and there was Shirley. She was as he liked to remember her, wearing her school uniform and a concerned look on her face, carrying that pink umbrella he knew all too well.

"You're dead," he said simply. She nodded, and the rain seemed to grow heavier.

"Then you'll know that whatever I'm saying, it's actually you saying it, Lelou," she said. "And you're telling yourself to wake up. You've still got something to do."

Lelouch shook his head. "I don't care," he said. "I don't want to wake up. So what if I do manage to kill my father again? So what if I manage to save the day, as I used to do? At the end of everything, there isn't-"

"There _is, _Lelouch," Shirley said. "You've still got CC. You've still got Nina. And Kira and Andrew. They need you, Lelouch."

"For now," he said, thunder rumbling in the background. "And what about after? What happens then?" He looked up. "Where do I go after this?"

Shirley smiled. "That's entirely up to you to decide, Lelou." She held out the umbrella, bit somehow stayed dry in the rain.. "Here. You're going to need it more than I do." He shook his head again.

"Why should I, Shirley?" he said. "I lost you again. I lost you _three times. _You were the only one who loved me for me, Shirley."

"Lelouch," Shirley said, sitting down next to him. "There are people who don't want to lose you, too." She turned his head toward her, and he saw that she had turned into CC. Rain was drenching her, soaking in her hair and running down her cheeks like tears.

"I'm one of those who don't want to lose you, Lelouch," she said. "I lost you once as well. Believe me, I know how you feel."

Lelouch shook his head in disbelief. "None of this is real." CC nodded.

"And yet you still talk." CC smiled. "You never used to be like this, Lelouch. You know it. And you know, too, that deep down, you don't want to die again."

"But I will, eventually," Lelouch sighed, but smiled all the same. "You witch." He got up off the bench, and found that the rain had stopped. He looked back at CC.

"Time to wake up."

...

Andrew poked the Cornershooter around the wall and took a look. There was a flash of red at the far end of the corridor, then it was gone. Andrew cursed silently for not pulling the trigger on time.

He withdrew the Cornershooter. "He's there, all right," he said to CC. "Be prepared." She nodded and drew her pistol. Andrew shook his head at her choice of weapon and lack of protection. She was still wearing her Ashford school uniform; he had a bulletproof vest, groin armour, knee and elbow pads, even a gorget.

_Why is she so reckless? _He thought, but advanced down the corridor all the same, SAR-15 up and ready. CC followed behind, pistol held barrel-down; the proper way as taught in the Chinese Federation armed forces.

Andrew pushed aside the inevitable question and continued down the corridor, silent despite all his armour. He reached the corner and expelled a silent breath. _Ready? _He mouthed to CC. She nodded.

They rushed round the corner, ready to fire at The Leader-

-and promptly crashed into Suzaku.

"Where is he?" Andrew asked quickly.

"Who?" Suzaku shot back.

"The Leader! He was here just now, we were tracking him and-" Andrew broke off as CC tapped him on the shoulder. She beckoned to a slightly ajar door. Andrew made a movement with his head as though to say _in there? _CC nodded. Andrew nodded back. He made a series of hand gestures, signalling that he go in first and take the right corner. Suzaku would follow immediately behind and take the left corner. CC would enter last, and shoot anything still standing.

Andrew positioned himself before the door and charged in, using his shoulder to slam open the door. He rolled, sensing Suzaku coming in behind him, and came up with his SAR-15 sweeping in a tight arc. On the other side of the room, Suzaku swept his pistol seamlessly to come to rest on the same target as Andrew.

But when CC came in, and fired at The Leader, she found that she couldn't. And she wasn't the only one having the same problem.

Andrew was gritting his teeth, his trigger finger quivering angrily, as he fought whatever it was that was preventing him from shooting. "D...dammit!" he snarled. "Shoot!"

The Leader smiled, his Victor Einstein face somehow managing to pull off the same kind of effect as Lelouch did when _he _smiled evilly.

"As I told Lelouch before," he said, "You can't kill me. Now you can't even _try _and kill me!" He walked slowly forward, to where CC was.

"You wonder why I'm able to do this," he said. "Very simple. Victor Einstein's mind, combined with my own Geass and Code... It was simple to take over his body when Lelouch disintegrated me."

CC struggled to look away, but she couldn't, and she saw the all-too familiar sigils in The Leader's eyes.

"Victor Einstein was as good as dead at the exact time I disintegrated," The Leader said. "Testing his cryogenics freezer... I must admit, he almost killed _me._ Imagine my delight when I saw you of all people walking up my front drive with Lelouch over your shoulder.

"And now..." The Leader's Geass sigils glowed brilliant red, "Time for you to forget that. Forget _everything._"His sigils burned out of his eyes and into CC's.

CC's eyelids refused to obey her commands and they remained wide open in horror, allowing The Leader's power to course through her mind, like a surging ocean of acid, dissolving every memory it came across. CC could _feel _it, burning her brain and violating everything she ever knew...

_...the shock when she found out that Kira had a Geass_...

_ ...her resolution to bring Lelouch back to life, and her grief when he was killed..._

_ ...trying to find a birthday gift for Nicolette... ...meeting Mr Peters and formally enroling in Ashford International..._

_...getting her Geass from a nun, whose Code had driven her crazy..._

_ ...fighting Jeremiah in his Giga Fortress.._

_ ..._

_...beatings, terrible beatings, from her former owners..._

_ ...meeting Lelouch..._

_..._

_ ..._

_...her plan to disguise themselves as siblings, as Dr Einstein's children..._

_and then_

_everything_

_ was_

CC opened her mouth to scream, and gunfire erupted like a volcano from the room's open doorway.

Lelouch was standing there, Shirley's SMG in his hands, and a look of righteous fury on his face.

"You're not Charles zi Britannia any more," he said. "Charles said he couldn't be killed, but I managed it. If I managed to kill an immortal, then what more of you?" He fired another burst into The Leader's still-standing body. "You're just a masked man. An idea that people believe in. Ideas are indestructible, but they can be corrupted.

"And a corrupted idea deserves not to live."

The Leader collapsed, blood streaming freely from his body. Lelouch walked over, reloading the SMG, and calmly aimed at his head.

"You are not fit to live in this world," he said, and pulled the trigger, emptying the magazine.

* * *

**Well. That's the end of all the action. No more fighting from this point on... there's only one more chapter to go, anyways...**

**Thanks to all of you who've stuck to my story for so long.**

**Till I upload the last chapter (probably meaning tomorrow), see ya!**


	20. Chapter 20

**This is the end!!!!!**

* * *

Chapter 20: Best-guess conversation

It had been two weeks since the ASEAN Army put down The Leader's rebellion, and it was the first time since that day that Lelouch and Andrew were able to find time to meet with each other. It was just as well; Kira, Nicolette, and even CC were scheduled to be discharged from hospital that day.

"So, 'Luke'," Andrew began, when he met him in the hospital atrium. "You owe me many explanations." They walked across the floor, to the banks of elevators waiting at the other side.

Lelouch nodded. "That I do," he replied. "Let's start with the inevitable: How did I come back to life? Lightning, and a bit of CC's Code."

"The thing that makes her immortal?"

"The very same," Lelouch said. The elevator arrived with a soft _ding_ and they went inside, followed by no one. Lelouch pressed the button for the eleventh floor and the doors closed, shutting them in.

"Are you immortal now as well?" Andrew said, following up on Lelouch's explanation. "Or are you just-?"

Lelouch shrugged. "According to CC, she gave me 'half her Code'," he said. "I can only assume that that's what's keeping me alive. I think I'll have a normal lifespan, a normal length of years."

"Right," Andrew said. "I assume you'd like to know something as well. The orange juice."

"_You _spiked it,_" _Lelouch said. Not a question.

"I didn't know it was spiked," Andrew defended himself, as the elevator doors opened to the eleventh floor. "Kira did get the aphrodisiac from Peters though. We just didn't know what it was. Thought it would be laxative or something."

"And you just _happily_ let Kira put it in our juice?" Lelouch was appalled. "What if Nina had drank it? Or someone else?"

"Peters told us that only you and Char- CC drank it." They were walking down the corridor to ward 1133, Nicolette's. "Now that you think of it, how did he know that?"

"My guess is that he had Shirley with him all along, and she was spying for him," Lelouch said. "What I don't get is why didn;t she speak until The Leader used the _Unmasker _control word?"

"Unmasker," Andrew repeated. "Maybe she was conditioned to wear a false façade until she heard the word, and that façade included pretending she couldn't talk. Maybe they had multiple control words." He shivered. "Scary thought."

They stopped before Nicolette's ward. "I'll go in first," Andrew offered. "After all, she did try to kill you."

Andrew led the way in ,and found Nicolette already all ready to go, changed out of her hospital gown into her casual clothes.

"Nicolette," Andrew greeted her, "How're you feeling?"

"Pretty good, actually," she said, "Considering my case was more mental that physical... They'd had to get a specialist from Britannia to come take a look at me." She made a face. "'Specialist' yeah, right. They say he's a farmer. Can you believe that?"

Lelouch nodded cautiously from behind Andrew. Nicolette saw that and laughed. "Don't worry, your majesty, I don;t feel like killing you anymore." Her face fell. "On the other hand, I don;t think I'll be able to do any art anymore either. My creativity's just gone and..." She shrugged. "It's just gone."

Andrew nodded. "We'll be going to check on the other two then, if it's okay with you," he said. "You can go wait for us in the atrium or something, if you get bored." He followed Lelouch out, who seemed very eager to get shot of Nicolette.

"She seems better," Andrew said, during the short walk to ward 1141, CC's ward. Lelouch wasn't as convinced as he was.

"You never know," he said. "I don't know how Jeremiah's Geass canceller works. It might cure her, it might not. The only person I know who ever got the canceller used on them died."

They stopped before ward 1141. "You want to go first?" Andrew offered the doorknob to Lelouch.

"Might as well," Lelouch braced himself for whatever would be inside, tried to anticipate how CC would react, and opened the door.

CC was sitting up in bed, looking slightly out of the window, a forlorn expression on her face. When she heard the door opening, she turned to look-and her face lit up with a glorious smile.

"Luke!" she exclaimed. "You've finally come to take me home!"

Lelouch shook his head to clear it. "Sorry," he said, "What did you call me?"

CC looked puzzled. "I called you by your name," she said, "Big brother." Her eyes finally registered Andrew standing there. "Oh, hi, Andrew! You came with Luke to pick me? How sweet." She looked at Lelouch again, then back at Andrew.

"Listen, Luke..." she said. "There's something else I need to say, and I need to tell only you alone, so... could you get Andrew to wait outside, please?"

Andrew nodded quickly. "Sure, I'll go," he said, and ducked back outside the door. He couldn't make out the whole conversation, but he did hear Lelouch's yell of disbelief.

"So," he said, when Lelouch stumbled out, ashen-faced, "What happened?"

Lelouch shook his head. "Later," he said. "I'll tell you later. For now, though, she thinks she really _is _Charlotte Carol Overton ,and I'm really Luke Overton. What the hell am I supposed to do?"

"Okay," Andrew said, "But that wouldn't have-"

"I know, I know," Lelouch said impatiently. "It's... much more shocking than that. I'll tell you later. I myself need to get over the shock first."

"Up to you," Andrew said, heading for the stairwell to get to Kira's ward, 1217, one floor up.

Just before they reached the door to the twelfth floor, Lelouch shook his head. "Stop," he said. "There's something you need to know about Kira. He's got a Geass."

"A- _excuse me?!_" Andrew almost shouted, and the stairwell echoed with his exclamation. "But... I thought you needed a Code-bearer to give you one or something?"

"Yeah, I know," Lelouch said. "But his was different. He had, like, half a symbol in one eye and half in another eye, and... I don't know! We just got to be careful, okay?"

"What's his Geass do?" Andrew demanded suddenly. "If we're going in there with someone who's potentially dangerous, I don't want-"

"It gives you luck," Lelouch said. "So I guess... It's thanks to him that we survived." He exhaled explosively.

"Guess I'll tell you what CC told me, too," Lelouch said. "She's pregnant. I did it."

Andrew's jaw dropped. He closed it with some difficulty, and an expression of deep thought came to his face. "Then... wouldn't that mean she's mortal now? I mean, I don't think she;d be able to bear children if she's like two hundred plus years old or something, right?"

Lelouch stared at him in silent disbelief, then began to shake with laughter. "Andrew..." he said, "You're thinking of this at a time when we should be focussing on the consequences of this problem? What are you thinking?"

"The consequences seem pretty obvious to me," Andrew shot back. "_You _got her pregnant, _you _take care of her and the child."

Lelouch sighed. "You're right," he said. "Come on, on to Kira's ward. I'll figure out what to do later."

As they walked down the corridor to ward 1217, Andrew said, "What're you going to say to Kira?"

"First, I'm gonna ask how he got his Geass," Lelouch replied. "_Then _I'll ask him how he's been."

But when they opened the door to ward 1217, it was empty.

* * *

**My gosh, that's the end of this story. I can hardly believe it... To be honest, this chapter is a total rewrite. The original chapter 20 was, I felt, way, way too cheesy and rushed.**

**It's been two months (shock!) since I started work on this story way back in June, when I was on leave. Three months, if you count by my uploadings. Thank you, all you people who regularly read my story and keep waiting every week for an update. It's because of you all that I continue writing every week! =)**

**Oh yeah, I put a few allusions to other literary works, and modified some things from this world to fit within the story. If you don't know what they are, here's a list:**

**Literary works:**

**Dr Victor Frank Einstein: Dr Frankenstein**

**Dr Shelley (Dr Einstein's colleague): Mary Shelley, author of _Frankenstein_**

**Nina's colleague, Joyce Kell: , as in Dr Jeykell and Mr Hyde**

**Mr Harker: Harker from _Dracula_**

**Real life:**

**White Mountain: Mt Shasta**

**Goggle (in chapter 2): Google, of course**

**St Francis International Airport: San Francisco International**

**Benning Wentworth: Portsmouth, New Hampshire (I just picked a location at random from wikipedia and my geography isn't so good)**

**Shinbashi (I looked it up on wikipedia, apparently it's near to Ginza, so I thought it'd become a sort of Shinjuku replacement within the Code Geass universe)**

**Mr RD Peters: Russell Peters. I just thought it'd be cool if he was a teacher. I really regretted killing his character off.**

**Alois-A (From chapter 6, what Kallen's mother is suffering from.): Alzheimer's disease.**

**Thiamine deficiency (From chapter 10.): Beriberi.**

**SSH-53 Helicopter (The one CC flew to Singapore.): MH-53 Pave Low**

**F-11 fighter (possibly a variation of the F-1 fighter)**

**Ky Lee: MM Lee Kuan Yew, one of Singapore's founding fathers. Sorry if I offended anyone by killing off the character named after him so fast. Please don't read too much into it, it's just a fanfiction.**

**Ultiman (Singaporean Knightmare): A play on Ultimax, a Singapore Army domestically-built light machine gun.**

**SAR-15: A cross between an AR-15 and a SAR-21.**

**Golan Cornershooter: CornerShot**

**Right, I think that should be all.**

**Again, a really big thank you to all of you who read my fic week after week! I'm amazed that I could have so many followers. If you're waiting for my next fic, then... I guess I'll have to say, I'm sorry, but I'm gonna be really busy till the end of the year. I'm even going out of the country in November. Sorry to any of you who didn't like me making Singapore a terrorist country. Like what I wrote above, it's just a fanfiction.**

**SO, in all, thanks for staying with me till the end! Hope you all can continue reading me if and when I start another story! Till the next time, see ya! =)**

* * *

Lelouch and Andrew waited for the elevator in silence. Kira was gone, to only-God-knew-where, and they had to break the news to Nicolette. Who knew what she would do. And to make things worse, there was CC to deal with, who now thought that she was really Charlotte Carol Overton and that her brother Luke had made her pregnant.

Neither of them broke the silence until Andrew said, "Lelouch, I've been wanting to ask you this one thing... It's been nagging at me but I never had the nerve to ask it..."

"Ask, then," Lelouch said, as the elevator doors opened. He got in first, and Andrew pressed the 'Door Close' button behind him. "Stop hesitating."

Andrew took a deep breath. "What was it like..." he asked, "What was it like... when you died? What happened when you died?"

Lelouch didn't answer. At least, not until they were about to reach the atrium.

"Nothing." Lelouch said.

"There was nothing."


End file.
